The Tunnels
by Enovelist
Summary: The pack is on yet another rescue mission to save one of their pack-mates from hunters. Stiles finds him and ends up being exactly the right person Derek needs to hang on...
1. Chapter 1

_Authors note: This could be a oneshot or this could be the first chapter of something. I haven't made up my mind about it yet. This just came to me when I was supposed to write another chapter on another story of mine. (Witches, man) But this happened instead.. And I decided to post it. Do you want another chapter or is it enough as a oneshot?_

 _Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Wolf or it's characters. I only enjoy writing my own stories about them.._

 _Oh, and Stiles and Derek isn't together yet in this chapter. But maybe there's something there...? Let me know what you think! And thank you for reading :)_

 _-o-o-o-o-_

 **The Tunnels**

Sprinting through the dark tunnels, Stiles tried to breathe quietly as he ran through them. Like, how did even quiet breathing work out when you're literally running for your life? Or your packmates life, in this case? Either way, he tried taking big gulps of air and quietly release it through his nose. He needed to keep himself from being caught. Because he was the one who had ended up being the one who actually managed to go under the freaking kidnapper's radar, believe it or not.

Scott, Erica, Boyd and Jackson had all been discovered when they tried to break in and were now currently fighting quite viciously against the hunters from the last Stiles had seen of them before he managed to sneak past them.

Allison was still out there in the shadows, as was Isaac, Danny and Lydia. Stiles knew that four humans and one werewolf held a small chance to get Derek out of there, but if the rest of them could fight their way through the hunter-front, then Isaac and the humans could damn well get one werewolf out.

Stiles screeched to a halt. "It's here." He looked both left and right, relieved when the tunnel was empty except for him. With shaking hands he pulled open the door and looked inside.

Stiles was lost for words. The way his stomach turned from the sight made him swallow hard before stepping into the room.

Inside the damp and darkened room, Derek was strung up with rope on both hands and feet, hanging like a Jesus-figure in the middle of the room.

"Derek- Oh my god. Derek, hey man. Can you hear me?" He got closer and noticed how Derek's head was hanging down, like he was unconscious. Or worse.

"Please, just be unconscious or tired. Don't be dead, man- I can't-" He stepped closer and ran a hand over his own face. "Jesus Christ, what have they done to you?" he whispered as he lifted his arm, letting his hand hover over Derek's bloody shoulder. Stiles didn't know if he could touch him or not, his whole torso was sliced up and dried blood and gore painted his skin.

The man's chest moved, so he was still alive. But barely from the looks of it. Hell- he had actual slashes across his chest, shoulders and stomach. _Wolvesbane_ , Stiles thought grimly to himself. It made the healing-process slow.

Derek was strung up by the ropes, making an x with how he was arranged. Stiles didn't even need to look at his back to know he'd been whipped. The blood on the floor underneath Derek and the smell of dirt and blood itself told him more than enough about what Derek had been through.

Stiles let his hand down on the werewolf's shoulder, gently.

Derek twitched, as to get away, but gave no other indication that he was conscious.

"Derek," Stiles whispered. "We're getting you out of here." He looked around, to see if there was anything he could use to cut the man down from the ropes.

He found a bloody knife, refusing to think about whose blood it was, as he started sawing the rope on Derek's right hand.

A low whimper of pain made him stop. "Derek?" He stopped the movement, looking intently on Derek's face, that was now inches away from him. Blue eyes looked blearily at him.

"You're not really here. I'm not- I can't- This isn't real."

Stiles swallowed hard. "Derek, I'm here. I'm here, I promise. We're getting you out of here."

The blue in Derek's eyes changed into his human eye-color and he heaved for breath. "I can't- Just don't-" The broken whispers of words made Stiles want to punch something, preferably someone. More like the someone who had done this to Derek. As if the werewolf hadn't been through enough.

"Come on, man. I have to get you down from these ropes. I have to saw them. I know it hurts like a bitch, but I swear; we're getting you out of here."

Derek just shook his head slowly, letting himself slump down. As much down as he could fall together while being strung up in ropes like he was.

With hurried movements, Stiles cut through the ropes that held Derek's legs, trying to do it as fast and painless as he could.

"Two down, two to go." Stiles stepped closer, breathing heavily and hoped he wouldn't get his head bitten off by doing this. He knew scent was important to wolves. At least born wolves like Derek. So he let himself get close enough so his chest bumped Derek's for each intake of breath he made.

When Derek didn't react, Stiles let his hand carefully rest on Derek's shoulder, hoping it wouldn't hurt him.

When Derek still didn't react, Stiles started talking low while he molded himself close to the wolf, as close as he managed without jostling the ropes, hoping to avoid inflicting any pain. "It's me. We're here. Scott and the rest are right behind me. We're actually here, Derek."

He let his chin touch Derek's bloodied jaw, hoping the touch and the scent of pack would make Derek come out of his delirium or whatever it was that he felt.

Stiles prayed to higher deities that his throat would remain intact as he carefully maneuvered Derek's head to rest on his shoulder, with the wolf's face tucked into the crook of his neck. They had never been this close before, but Stiles didn't have time to think about that right now.

"Man, you're cold. And I know that is a bad sign because I know how you guys run hot with all of the wolf-mojo you've got going for you. I'm not trying to cuddle you or anything, because I know you're not into cuddling and all, but dude, we're friends and you're pack. And now- now you have to come back to the land of the living. Like right now." He kept murmuring nonsense while he stood there trying to get Derek to react, hoping the others would take care of the hunters. "-and while I have no problem sharing space, I would love for you to actually come to your senses, so I could go back to getting you out of these ropes, man."

A small nudge of a cold nose against his jugular made him stop his rambling.

"Dude, are you back with me?"

"You're really here."

The words came out hoarse, almost like a sob and Stiles' heart broke for the guy.

"I am. We're here. All of us." He paused briefly, as Derek shuddered.

"And I need to get you out of here." Stiles leaned back to try to look at the other man, but he stopped when he heard a low whine.

"Alright, alright. I'm not going anywhere."

Stiles heard someone coming running down the tunnels outside the room and he hoped it wasn't the hunters.

"Stiles?"

"Derek?"

Scott, Isaac and Danny came in to the room and Stiles tried to turn around to look at them but was stopped when Derek growled low in his throat.

"Okay. Okay, I'll just stay like this," he breathed into Derek's hair. They were chest to chest and Stiles knew the touch had to hurt for the other man, but apparently Stiles represented pack and safety at the moment, so he stayed where he was.

"Scott," Stiles said and the Alpha showed up in his line of sight, looking shocked and angry on Derek's behalf. "Scott, you need to cut the ropes of."

"Why haven-"

"Because he's so out of it so he protests when I try moving away. Dude, a little help here?" Stiles bit out, trying not to shout in Derek's ear.

Isaac took the knife Stiles was holding out, and looked at Stiles, holding the knife up to the rope.

Stiles put his hand in the back of Derek's head, where he hoped the man was uninjured. "Hey, Derek. Isaac is going to cut the ropes."

A low groan was heard from Derek and Stiles closed his eyes briefly as a cold nose burrowed even closer to Stiles' neck. Stiles gave a short nod to Isaac, who only then started his work.

More footsteps were heard, and Stiles knew it had to be the others since Scott barely reacted when they came into the room.

Different sets of gasps and quiet exclamations were heard, but other than that they all kept quiet.

Isaac stopped to get a better angle on the rope and Derek went limp, resting his body against Stiles'.

Stiles held onto Derek's neck, making soothing circles with his thumb. "Almost done," he murmured, but knew they all could hear him. "I won't leave you."

Isaac lifted the knife again, sawing slowly and painfully according to the sounds coming from Derek, through the rope.

As the rope snatched, Isaac caught Derek's arm and slowly moved it so it hung down before he went to the other side, all the while Derek were still resting his head on Stiles' shoulder. "Alright, one rope to go. Ready?"

A slow nod against his neck was all he got as an answer, and while Isaac sawed through the last rope, Derek's free hand gripped Stiles' shirt, right on the middle of his back and clenched the fabric of the hoodie in his fist.

"Hang on, buddy. I've got you," Stiles mumbled as the other beta successfully sliced the last rope and Derek fell down with a 'omph' from Stiles, who naturally landed under him.

"God, you're heavy as a deadweight. But I am also happy you're not actually deadweight." He lifted his hand to clap Derek's shoulder, but thought better of it when he caught a glimpse of his back. "Jesus Christ."

Painfully slow, Derek got himself to sit up on the floor while hissing through his teeth.

"Is there any water here?" Erica asked. "I guess they had wolvesbane in everything they-" she gestured with her arm, not wanting to use the word 'torture', "-used," she said quietly.

Derek lifted his head, but ended up groaning in pain as the movement jostled his bleeding wounds.

"We better get you out of here," Scott said, they had to get out.

Stiles dried his now sweaty face with the sleeve of his hoodie. "Here we go," he said, slipping his arm around Derek's back and got Derek to lean against him. "I know it hurts like shit, but we'll get you cleaned up and healed in no time when we get out of here."

Boyd came to the other side and while Isaac tried to take Stiles place, Derek growled.

Isaac seemed to get it, whatever it was, and looked at Stiles. "You better help Boyd get him to Deaton."

Stiles slid back into place under Derek's arm, letting him lean on him as they slowly made their way out to the car.

"I'll drive," Boyd said as they got Derek to lay down in the backseat.

"But it's my car," Stiles protested but stopped when a hand shot out to grip his arm. He looked at Derek, who seemed to be unconscious apart from the hand gripping his arm pretty tight. "Alright then," Stiles soothed, and sat down awkwardly beside Derek's feet.

Boyd just lifted a brow, having a knowing glint in his eye.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'm driving you to Deaton."

Stiles grit his teeth. "You do that."

-0-0-0-


	2. Chapter 2

_Authors note: First of all; Thank you for your feed-back. I thought this would become a one-shot, but since you asked so nicely (not that I need a lot of pursuation) here's the second chapter. Hooray! I hope this does the story justice, though. *fingers crossed* Oh, and I don't own the characters or the show. I just write for fun. Because I have strong feelings about this ship and I'll never let it sink. Please tell me what you think, your comments lifts my spirit! Enjoy!_

The Tunnels

Getting Derek onto the table back in Deaton's office turned out to be one hell of a feat seeing how Derek continued to trash and being even less cooperative than normal. Not that anyone blamed him, he was in and out of consciousness and shifted from growling and whimpering because of the pain being moved caused him.

Deaton washed his wounds thoroughly since the poison had kept Derek from healing, only speaking when he needed something handed to him. Even after the wounds were clean, it would still take some time for him to heal. Especially since he'd been poisoned for a while. More like four days. Four days of torture and four days since he had disappeared. More like shot with a tranquilizer and kidnapped to some underground torture-dungeon, but Stiles refused to think too much about that.

He hadn't slept since Derek went missing, neither had the rest of them. Now they were all scattered in the waiting room, apart from Scott and Isaac, who both helped Deaton clean the wounds and set up an IV for Derek.

He was dehydrated and had lost a lot of blood. And the wounds weren't even the worst part. They had electrocuted Derek as well, using a cable or something under the soles of his feet. It was mostly healed, but Deaton had recognized the marks, even if they were faint. God knows how many others things that had been inflicted on the wolf, but had already healed so there were no scars.

Stiles paced the room while the rest were more or less asleep. He was tired. Excruciatingly tired, but the need to know that Derek would be okay overrode everything else. "Hey doc, how's he doing?" he asked, poking his head in to the room where Derek was being treated.

Deaton looked up from Derek's healing wounds and over to Stiles. "He needs time to heal." The veterinarian paused, taking his gloves off before throwing it in the garbage-can. "His wolf is weak, and from my experience, he will need someone to stay here with him over night. He needs his pack." Deaton looked to Scott, who had just finished cleaning up whatever it was that they had used.

The Alpha nodded. "I'll stay tonight," he said with a glance on Derek. "Isaac?"

Isaac nodded. "Yeah, no problem." He carefully placed a hand on Derek's shoulder. "I'll stay."

Stiles swallowed. There was no way he would be able to sleep tonight. "Me too."

Scott raised a brow but nodded. "Alright, I'll go talk to the others."

When Scott left the room, Stiles took his place opposite Isaac. With Derek between them, he looked over to Isaac, watching the beta take a deep breath. "You okay, dude?"

Isaac looked as worn out as Stiles felt. "Yeah, I'm fine."

He was not fine. Despite the hours spent talking about his childhood to a psychiatrist all these years, fear always lingered when one of his pack-mates were injured. Especially Derek, who had been the Alpha who turned him.

Stiles fished out his keys from his pocket and held them out for Isaac to take. "Here. Take a breather, buy us something to drink and maybe some snacks or sandwiches."

"I'm not leaving him," Isaac said before he gestured to his clothes. "And I can't go anywhere looking like this."

"Take the car, go find some clean and un-ripped clothes and come back here with some food." Stiles ran a hand through his hair. "He's sleeping and he'll probably stay asleep the whole night. Just go, get some air, some clean clothes and some food. We all need something to eat."

Isaac sighed and looked a little relieved. "Alright."

When Isaac left, Stiles looked down at Derek, noticing how his eyelashes cast shadow over his cheeks. He looked peaceful, Stiles decided, at least for now.

"You better be okay, man."

-0-0-0-0-

Hours later, Isaac was nodding off in his chair, resting his head against the wall while Scott checked the IV-bag that was almost empty. "Do you think he'll need more?" he asked Deaton, who was leaning against the table to their right.

"No. You can take it down when that bag is empty."

Stiles hid a yawn behind his hand. "Then what?"

Deaton crossed his arms over his chest, looking at Derek's sleeping form. "We wait."

After Scott unhooked the IV, Stiles watched as the pinprick from the needle healed in seconds. His eyes took in the unblemished skin on Derek. There was no visible damage on Derek now, at least not physically. The wounds on his back were gone, the slashes that hours earlier had painted Derek's torso were healed and only spotless, healthy skin was to be seen.

Scott left to go to the bathroom as Deaton went to the back to check on the animals. Stiles kept looking at Derek, trying to force him to wake up by sheer will. He knew it wouldn't work, but he felt so helpless.

They had searched every part of the town for any sign for Derek after he went missing. For days, they had been out there trying to find him. And they had succeeded finding Derek's scent on one of the hunters that had been at the gas-station the third day. Pure coincidence.

Stiles shook his head. Werewolves and their noses. Being a supernatural creature had its perks.

When they had found the place where the hunters kept Derek, they had planned their attack. But at that time, Derek had already been tortured for days.

Stiles only hoped he hadn't been hanging from those ropes all that time he had been missing. Something like that could be impossible to bounce back from. Even for them. Even for him.

The town had become almost peaceful over the last couple of years. All of them had gotten their college degrees and somehow everyone had managed to end up back in Beacon Hills. It was their home. Their territory.

Other packs knew this and respected that. With Scott being a true Alpha and Derek's family name still holding a fair amount of respect they had been left alone, more or less. And through Chris Argent they also had a truce- well, more like a shaky agreement- with other hunters which made it a pretty safe town. Even the crazy monster-of-the-week-happenings had calmed down quite a lot.

But now, there were these hunters. Argent had nothing on who they were or what they wanted but Stiles knew that some hunters didn't honor the code and just killed every werewolf they could track down. He had a brewing suspicion that these people were those kind of hunters.

Even if Scott and the other werewolves had eviscerated most of the hunters, there were still at least three who had survived. And Stiles needed Derek to wake up so they could find out what had happened in the tunnels.

Stiles was so deep in thoughts that he almost didn't catch the movement in his peripheral vision. He turned his head and noticed Derek's legs moving.

"Isaac!" Stiles glanced at the beta, which startled awake. "I think something's happening." He grabbed Derek's hand, but it was no response. "Derek?"

Isaac came up to them and looked down at Derek. "Is he waking up? What happened?"

"He moved his legs, and I thought-"

Derek started seizing and Isaac yelled for Scott and Deaton as Stiles gripped Derek's arm and thigh so he wouldn't fall off the table. "Isaac, help me so he doesn't hurt himself."

Together they held Derek as calm as possible as Deaton and Scott checked his response-time.

Deaton looked at them. "Put him on his side. Quickly." he ordered as they tipped the wolf onto his left side.

"What's happening?" Scott seemed to use all of his strength to hold Derek's feet from kicking around. "We need to do something."

"The venom is working its way through his body and his system is fighting it," Deaton said as he checked Derek's pupils. "He's not responding as I hoped, but his body will fight through this."

Stiles thought he heard Isaac growl, but it was Derek who had started growling low in his throat as the seizure weakened in strength.

"Good, his wolf is stronger." Deaton eased up on his hold on Derek's torso. "Someone needs to get behind him and get him in a seated position."

"Shouldn't he lie like this? It's the best for his blood flow." Scott said as Derek's body went limp.

"No, his wolf will keep fighting his way out so he needs to sit up so he feels safer. Lying down makes him vulnerable and that could trigger an attack if he's not quite himself yet. He needs his pack." Deaton looked at Stiles. "Climb behind him and support his torso." He looked over to Isaac. "Stand on his right while Scott, you take the left side. Let him know you're here."

"Why me? Shit." He hurried over to the end of the table. "Doesn't he know? I mean, we're crowding him for God's sake," Stiles said, but he climbed up and while Isaac and Scott pulled Derek's still frame up, Stiles slipped behind him, albeit a little clumsy. "Please don't bite me," he mumbled as he got one leg on both sides of Derek's hips. Opening his arms, Scott and Isaac leaned Derek to rest against his chest with Derek's head lying limply on his shoulder. A low growl still came from Derek, but Deaton just shook his head at Stiles, who was about to ask a question.

Stiles shut his mouth and before he could settle down, Deaton ordered the wolves to lift the table over to the wall so Stiles could lean back while he supported Derek.

"Hey, whoa- careful!" Stiles flailed and grabbed hold of Derek so he wouldn't keel over. "A little warning next time," he barked. "Jesus."

With a secure grip around Derek's shoulders he leaned back against the wall, trying not to jostle Derek too much. With a sigh, he leaned his head back against the wall while Deaton checked on Derek again.

"Why couldn't one of the wolves have done this?" Stiles looked at Deaton. "I'm the human, remember. I can actually die if he goes crazy-wolf."

Deaton just looked at him without answering.

Isaac looked worried, so Stiles shot him a weak smile. "I'm fine. Probably." He looked down only to feel Derek's hair tickle his nose. "As long as he doesn't slice me open."

The growl stopped and Stiles held his breath.

Deaton herded Scott and Isaac closer to the table and they both put their hands on Derek's arms.

"You're okay, Derek. We got you out, you're safe," Scott said as he rested his cheek against Derek's briefly.

"That's still weird, dude," Stiles said as Scott straightened up.

"I'm his Alpha." Scott said it quietly but determent.

Stiles rolled his eyes with a smile. "I know. Still weird, always will be."

Scott shrugged while a smirk tugged his lips.

There had been a time where Scott never, not in a million years, would have touched Derek Hale. Now it was more common, like a clap on the shoulder, a hand on his back, but rarely like this. Stiles wasn't lying, he'd never get used to wolves scent-marking their pack. Not even him. Especially not him. And Derek? Lone wolf, stoic man with a grim face and expressive eyebrows? Nope. Still weird.

What? His mind was whirling and he was worried about Derek, alright. Forgive him for thinking about less serious things.

Isaac pulled his chair closer and put a hand on Derek's leg while Scott sat down on the other side, keeping a hand on Derek's arm.

Deaton blew out a quiet breath. "He'll feel safer now and more in control. His wolf seems content." He blinked. "So far, so good."

Stiles snorted. "Easy for you to say, you're not the one who's squished between a wall and a man who feels like a brick-wall."

Deaton just turned around and left the room. Stiles sighed and let himself relax. Derek was leaning heavily against him, but it wasn't as bad as Stiles thought, even if the man was all muscles and strength. It was far more comfortable than the actual brick-wall behind him.

Stiles sighed, feeling relief rush through his veins. Derek would be alright.

Stiles pulled Derek closer against his chest using the arm he had slung around Derek's chest moments before. He didn't even feel restless, even if he knew he would be sitting there the whole night.

Derek breathed deep and even, his chest moving rhythmically.

"He better be okay," he heard Isaac mumble with an unsteady voice.

"Hey, he's going to be fine, Isaac," Scott said quietly. "He just needs to rest."

Stiles closed his eyes, feeling the heartbeats from Derek's chest against his arm.

This would be a long night.

-0-0-0-0-

Some hours later Stiles blinked his eyes open and felt a hand grip the arm he had resting across Derek's chest. Hard.

Looking down, he met panicked and confused eyes . "Ow- Derek, hey," he whispered. "You're safe, we got you out." He watched the other man blink, his gaze becoming clearer. "We're at Deaton's, the wolfsbane is almost out of your system. Isaac and Scott are here and the rest of the pack will be here in the morning." He took a gulp of air as he felt the grip on his arm loosen up until it was just resting against his. "How do you feel?"

A look from Derek conveyed just what he thought about that question.

"Well, excuse me for asking, but we were worried. Like crazy-ass worried, alright." His voice became softer against his will but he didn't notice. "Dude, you were gone for four days and we- I'm sorry we couldn't find you sooner." He wet his lips and tightened his hold on the man. "The hunters held you in a tunnel just by the outskirts of town. They're lower in number now after we fought them."

Derek tensed in panic and Stiles shook his head, still holding Derek in a secure grip of comfort with his right arm across Derek's chest, gripping his left shoulder. "We've got a plan for the rest of them. Chris is on it and we're going to get them, alright?"

He felt the muscles in Derek's back relax and the man's head lolled on Stiles' shoulder.

"Get some sleep. You need to rest up." He paused. "We'll be here the whole time."

Derek turned his head towards Stiles neck and he thought he heard him breathe in deep before going even more lax in his arms. "You're here." His voice was rusty from disuse.

Stiles frowned. "We are."

"No, I mean- Never mind." Derek swallowed drily and Stiles felt a cold nose moving against his neck. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." He paused. "Now we're even." Stiles joked quietly and dropped his head down so his nose sifted through the man's hair. "Just rest, okay? You're safe. You're still a little cold," he said, pulling the blanket up to the man's chin. Someone must have put the blanket on them while Stiles was asleep and Stiles was thankful for that now.

He let his head drop back against the wall as he felt the man submit to sleep once again. His right thumb kept running circles into Derek's left shoulder and he felt the hand that had gripped his arm earlier, was now resting comfortably on his arm even though it felt like Derek needed to hold on to something. He could be that someone if Derek needed it. Lord knows what the man had suffered through.

He glanced down and met Scott's knowing look. "What?" he mouthed, but Scott shook his head looking relieved. They shared a quick smile before trying to get some sleep again.

-0-0-0-0-


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

When the sun rose the next morning, Stiles rolled his head trying to get the crick out of his neck. Sitting propped up on a table the whole night didn't do his body any favors.

Derek was currently standing on the other side of the room looking like he wanted to be anything but there.

Stiles could understand that and evidently so could Scott, who told the man to go home. "Go home, Derek. We'll meet up tonight, after you'll get some rest."

Derek nodded, strangely subdued. His eyes flicked between the people in the room, who now consisted of all of their pack-mates.

Stiles met the wolf's eyes and for a second Stiles could see the anguish and terror hiding there before Derek pointedly looked away and nodded to Scott, with his stoic mask of nothingness back on.

"We'll drive you," Erica said, softly for once, dragging Boyd with her.

"Thank you." Derek looked at them, one by one, and Stiles felt like Derek was so un-like himself that he felt unease seep through his bones.

Scott raised his brows in surprise. "No problem, dude. I'm sorry we couldn't find you sooner."

Derek shrugged.

Shrugged! Derek! Derek didn't shrug. He glared. Pointedly and sometimes downright spine-chillingly. Now though; nothing. His eyebrows didn't even move.

Stiles found it worrisome but shut down the thought on what the man had been through. He ran a hand through his already messed up hair and blew air through his nose. "Derek, we-"

The glare was back. Stiles had never thought he'd ever miss that glare but there it was. Eyebrows in all its glory turned into a frown and Stiles shut his mouth with an audible click.

"You will let Derek go home now, and you will all be able to talk to him later today." Deaton said with a definite edge that made Erica open the door and nod to Derek.

"Come on, we'll drive you."

With a solemn nod, Derek followed them, only stopped by Scott who put a hand on his beta's shoulder. Something transferred between the Alpha and the former one. Derek nodded stiffly before leaving without so much of a 'goodbye'.

-0-0-0-0-

"Well, that went better than expected," Stiles said just as he heard Boyd's car start. "I don't know if I should be thankful Derek seems to be back to his old self or-"

"Just go home, Stiles." Deaton sent him a look, the kind that told him that he probably should do what he'd been told and get some sleep. Preferably in a bed.

Stiles held up his hands in surrender before fishing his keys out of his pocket. "Do you need a ride?"

Scott shook his head. "I've got my bike."

Isaac just shook his head and left along with Allison.

Stiles sighed. "Alright, if anyone wants a lift I'm leaving now."

Jackson just followed Lydia, who had her car parked next to Stiles'. "See you tonight, Stiles. Try to get some sleep."

Lydia had mellowed over the last couple of years and had actually become one of Stiles' closest friends. Stiles knew they never would have worked together in a romantically way. They were better off as friends, something Stiles had accepted as soon as he had gotten to know her better and the pedestal he'd put her on had disappeared. He'd always love her, but he knew he'd never really loved her. Not the way Jackson did- the way she should be loved. So Stiles now had a rock-solid friendship with the most wonderful girl in the world.

Much to Jackson's irritation which again gave Stiles so much satisfaction. Seriously, to see Jackson glare and huff and puff about him having to wait for Lydia when she hung out with Stiles; magnificent.

When Stiles got home he barely managed to untie his shoes before he fell to his bed with an 'oomph' and went out like a light.

-0-0-0-0-

When he woke up, he had a text from Scott send only minutes ago that they were to meet at Derek's place in an hour.

"Shit." He sniffed his armpits and almost gagged. He'd better shower. Werewolves and their sensitive noses. And their extremely sharp teeth if he offended said noses.

After a quick shower, he drove to Derek and let himself in. In the time after they had found the guy, Stiles hadn't let himself think about it too much. He knew it would make his mind implode and go into overdrive. And he really didn't want to spend any time thinking about what would have happened if- Nope, he still wouldn't go there. He just.. couldn't.

"Hey, anyone here yet?" Stiles asked the surprisingly empty room. The loft still was minimalistic in its interior with only a couch and some chairs but no carpets or pictures on the walls. At least there wasn't a hole in the wall anymore. But there were a lot of equipment in the kitchen. Somehow Derek had shown an interest in making food, to everyone's happiness and therefor the kitchen was the most lived-in room in the whole loft.

Stiles went over to the stairs and looked up. "Derek?"

After hesitating, he went upstairs and looked down the corridor. He'd only been up there a handful of times since Derek had started using the second floor as bedrooms. It was three of them, and Isaac had one when he needed to get away from his foster-parents while Derek had the other. The third one had always been locked and no one knew what Derek had behind that door. Not because they hadn't tried finding out, but Derek had refused to tell them and Scott actually had roared at them, red eyes and all, to make the pack stop pestering Derek about it.

Stiles surpassed the locked room without even thinking about it and knocked on Derek's bedroom door. "Hey, are you in there?" He knocked again, hesitatingly this time. "Derek?"

The door opened showing Derek's signature glare once again. "What."

Stiles raised his eyebrows. "Wow, you're really back." He bit the inside of his cheek and started over. "Nobody's here yet." He swallowed at the look in Derek's eyes. Like he couldn't stand talking to people.

Most days he couldn't, Stiles knew, but this was different.

"I mean, I just wanted to see where you were and Scott sent a text that we would meet here," he looked at his watch, "around now, actually, so I just knocked on your door and here we are."

"I can see that. What I meant was; why didn't you wait downstairs?"

"Dude, I'm allowed up here, aren't I? I mean, not that I've been up here that often but-"

"Stiles."

"Derek."

Said man pinched the top of his nose with two fingers and turned his back on Stiles. "Just go back down, I'll be there soon."

This was weird. He'd just turned his back on Stiles and he never turned his back on anyone. Werewolf and trust, you know.

"Derek?" Stiles stepped into the room tentatively. "How-" He knew it was a stupid question but he had to ask. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine."

Stiles noticed the rigidness in Derek's back, the tense way he held himself, like he thought he would fall apart if anyone so much as looked at him too long.

Stiles knew that feeling, it was the same one he'd had a long while after the Nogitsune. "You are not fine. No one is fine after what you went through-"

Derek turned back sooner than Stiles could step back and he, once again, ended up with his back against a wall and a fist in the front of his shirt. "Do not talk about what you think I have been through!"

With his arms held up in surrender, Stiles looked intently at the wolf in front of him. Because it was clear that this was more wolf than man at the moment. He lowered his chin but held eye-contact. This was too important to let Derek think he could win, when there wasn't even a contest. "I'm not saying I know what went on," he said calmly. "But I don't think anyone can be fine after- Derek, please let go of my shirt." Stiles swallowed and forced himself to breathe slowly. "Derek, I didn't mean anything bad with it. You know I didn't."

The wolf eased up his hold on Stiles shirt, instead he let his fist splay out so his palm rested against Stiles chest. Stiles tilted his head a little. "I'm going to put my hands on your shoulders, okay?"

Seconds ticked by before Derek nodded faintly, lowering his gaze down to Stiles' neck.

Stiles let his hands rest on each of Derek's shoulders. "Okay, good. This is good." He let his hands slide down to rest on the man's upper arms. "We're good, this is fine. Just don't kill me, alright?"

Derek's eyes snapped up to meet his and Stiles eased up on the hold on Derek's arms, but Derek all but pushed his arms up into Stiles palms.

A look passed between them and Stiles nodded to himself. "I'm going to hug you now. Everybody should hug more often in my opinion. And from what Scott says, I give awesome hugs." He paused and tried to decipher Derek's blank look. "Alright, here we go," he said, "and no maiming the human." His arms went around Derek's broad shoulders and he pushed himself from the wall at the same time, ending up in a full body-hug of some sort.

Stiles caught a small sound from Derek, like he couldn't help it, before he felt an arm around his waist, almost crushing his ribs. Derek's other arm was still trapped between them where Derek's hand was still splayed out over Stiles' chest.

While they stood there, Derek turned his face towards Stiles' neck as he sagged against the human. Stiles could feel Derek breathing in deep as he leaned against him, and Stiles widened his stance to take the weight. "It's alright, Derek. You're safe." He let his hands splay out over the other man's back, letting one of his hands slide over the tattoo he knew was there. "I got you."

He quietly breathed in the scent of the woods, fresh cotton and something uniquely Derek, letting himself relax for the first time in five days. How long they stood like that, Stiles didn't know. But when Derek went rigid in his arms, he knew the overly long hug was over. "They're here," he said, pulling back.

"Yeah." Derek stepped back and refused to meet his eyes.

"Hey, are you up for meeting everyone again?" Stiles asked, hands going into the pockets of his jeans. His arms felt colder somehow. But he refused to let this become awkward.

"Of course." Derek nodded once, his eyes betraying his otherwise stoic expression.

Stiles could see the exhaustion and pain in Derek's eyes but knew he couldn't do anything to help, other than to be there for him. "I don't believe you, but okay. Let's go down there."

Derek waited until Stiles had left the room to exit it himself.

"Wolves and their den," Stiles mumbled with no heat behind the words.

Derek didn't seem to mind, judging from the quick twitch on his lips before they went down the stairs.

Stiles went over to the couch and flopped down next to Allison, who was looking at Stiles with wonder. "I didn't know you were here."

"Tried to sneak into the room of requirement, but Derek wouldn't let me. And it was still locked, so.." He glanced at Derek, who stood by the chair next to the couch. Stiles could see the surprise in his eyes. Stiles huffed. He actually knew when to shut up about something.

Derek turned and went over to Scott, who greeted him with visible relief in his eyes.

"Hey man, did you get some sleep?"

"I've rested."

Stiles knew the man was lying through his teeth, but he didn't say anything. He knew the feeling too well.

-0-0-0-0-

Two hours later, they had told Derek about what they knew about the remaining hunters.

"So there's three of them left, and according to Chris they're not following the code-"

"We know that already." Jackson sneered.

"-and they've been known to kill not only werewolves, but other creatures as well." Scott paused. "And humans, who sympathize with anyone-"

"Supernatural?" Erica asked sweetly. Her Supernatural-love, the show –not the actual supernatural- knew no bounds. Not even in a discussion like this.

Scott rolled his eyes, but nodded. "Yes."

Derek stood with his arms crossed over his chest, looking more angry than Stiles had seen him in years. Not that he blamed the dude. "And you think we should try to talk with them? There's no reasoning with people like that." The words came out with an edge of growling and Scott sighed.

"I know. But I think we should make sure that they haven't called reinforcement or if they're making more plans about-"

"Torturing and killing werewolves," Derek finished dryly.

Scott nodded, turning his sympathetic eyes on the rest of the pack. Stiles could understand why Derek seemed more on edge after seeing the sympathy in the Alpha's eyes. It was well-meant, but not well received apparently.

Stiles hated looks like that. He'd gotten them a lot after his mom died. Except from Scott, weirdly enough.

"Scott, may I have a word with you?" Stiles asked and got up from the couch and walked over to the kitchen.

Scott followed and looked at him. "What?"

Stiles typed on his phone so the others wouldn't hear their conversation and showed it to Scott.

"What?" Scott frowned and looked as Stiles wrote an answer.

Scott cocked his head as he read, and he nodded slowly. "But I just-"

"No. Just, don't." Stiles put his phone away. "You know how I feel about it and it's pretty clear that he feels the same way I do about those-" He lowered his voice. "-looks. They are the worst."

Scott looked like a kicked puppy, and nothing like the Alpha that Stiles had seen him become. He started to say something but Stiles just leveled him with a look.

Scott seemed to think it over for a second and then: "Yeah, they really are. Sorry, dude."

"Don't say you're sorry. Just treat him like a person. He doesn't need pity, he needs time to heal and he needs his pack to be there for him. Even if he doesn't know it, or acknowledge it, he needs people to treat him like a normal human being. Well, werewolf-person- You know what I mean. Not like-" Stiles gesticulated something neither of them really knew what meant, but Scott seemed to catch the drift of it anyway. He was awesome like that. At least the times he actually got what Stiles meant.

After that, the meeting went better and Stiles noticed how Derek's shoulders had loosened their rigidness at least a fraction.

Better than nothing, Stiles thought as Lydia went over the details of what would happen next.

"-so if they want to talk, we'll do that. But we'll be prepared. And Allison will talk to her dad, so that he'll come with if necessary and Stiles-"

"Dad already knows." Allison added.

He looked over to Malia, who seemed to have spaced out. "Malia?"

"What?" The girl frowned at Stiles and reminded him of a wild animal. Well, she had been for years, and she hadn't really managed the transition from coyote to human yet. Even if that had been more than five years ago.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Down in the tunnels I could swear I felt something else. The scent was wild, but I have no idea of what."

"What do you mean?" Isaac asked, leaning forward.

"I just said what I meant." She looked at him. "I smelled someone there, someone wild. Or at least it smelled wild."

"What? And you're saying this now?" Erica protested, but got shushed on by Isaac, much to her irritation.

"I only just remembered."

"So what you're saying is that they could have someone else held there?" Scott asked. "In the tunnels? But we looked into every room before we found Derek."

They all fell silent before Lydia opened her mouth. "Well, not all. We stopped when we found him, right? And Derek was in one of the last rooms we found, but those tunnels were deep."

They all broke out in questions and theories and suggestions about what to do and who that might've been and why.

Derek looked at his pack and Stiles noticed how white the wolf had become and went over to hand him a soda. "Here, drink this."

Derek looked almost offended at the soda can Stiles held out, but took it with unsteady hands. He looked up to meet Stiles eyes but Stiles only gave him a half-smile and squeezed his arm. "Drink up, big guy." Stiles stood with his back to the pack, shielding Derek in a way so none of the others could see their faces. "We'll get them."

Lydia printed out a map over the town and went over to the table by the windows and started drawing the tunnels as she remembered them.

Stiles went over to her and added what he remembered, and with Scott's help they had a map over the area that the tunnels were underneath.

Stiles looked over at Derek, who stood next to them and stared at the map. "Derek?"

The man looked at him with haunted eyes before his walls came back up. "Over here," he pointed to where they thought the tunnels ended, "-there's a corridor with three more rooms or more. I can't remember much, they only held me there the first couple of nights."

Stiles sucked in a gulp of air. It was the first information Derek had given them from his time down there. "Okay, and what are they? Holding cells or?"

Derek nodded. "Something like that." He looked back at the map. "There wasn't anyone else there while I was there. I couldn't smell or hear anyone else in the rooms next to mine."

"Can you tell us where they used to be when they weren't with you? I mean-" Lydia trailed off but Derek nodded.

"Yeah, they were in the room closest to the entrance. Probably to guard the tunnels at the same time. The other rooms- I don't know."

Erica looked between the map and Derek before pointing on the room where they had found him. "We found you in that room. Did you see anyone else than the hunters while you were there?"

"I-" Derek gritted his teeth and shook his head. "Just the hunters."

"Well, I smelled something else there. And you didn't smell it?" Malia said, not noticing the look Scott gave her. Her social skills still needed some polishing.

"I was too busy trying to survive," Derek bit out and glared at the map.

"So," Stiles clapped his hands together, "-we know where the hunters used to hang out, we know there's another corridor that we didn't see and we know they might have someone else down there." He looked around the table. "Right?"

Scott nodded. "Allison, we need to meet up with your dad. Can you call him?"

Allison nodded and picked up her phone.

"Stiles, can you find the blueprints of that tunnel?" He turned to Lydia. "You help him."

"Jackson, Boyd, Erica and Isaac; run the perimeter. Be careful, go in pairs." He turned to Derek. "When we've talked to Chris, we'll try contacting the hunters to see if they want to talk. If not, we're going after them."

Malia tilted her head in confusion. "And what do I do?"

"Try to remember which kind of smell it was. Who it could belong to. Werewolf or otherwise."

She nodded and Stiles felt a moment of pride for his best friend. Scott still had a lot to learn, but he was a good leader. Especially because he listened to his pack. It was more like a democracy and it worked.

They all went to do what they've been assigned to do and Stiles looked back at Derek who, to be honest, looked too angry while simultaneously looking lost. "Hey, can Lydia and I stay here while we fish for the blueprints on our laptops?"

A glimpse of relief flitted over Derek's face before he nodded.

"I'll call when we've talked with Chris," Scott said before going with Allison, leaving them alone.

-0-0-0-0-


	4. Chapter 4

_Authors note: Hello? Anyone there? So, so sorry that I haven't updated in a while. But I hope I'm forgiven? I know where I'm going with this story, but if you have any suggestions about what's going to happen, I'm always happy to hear your thoughts :) So, with further ado:_

Chapter 4

"Did you find anything?" Derek asked, stopping beside the table where both Lydia and Stiles were sitting.

"The blue-prints didn't show the end of the tunnel. But we printed them out anyway. But this one-" Lydia added another sheet of something that looked like the rest of the prints, "-does." She put them together, and they could see the tunnels didn't go that much further than the original blue-print. "It's not much to go on."

Stiles rubbed a hand over his hair, blinking his eyes, obviously tired. "Yeah. The tunnels seemed deeper when we were there, but it was dark and when I found you I didn't look further so.. I don't have much to go on either." He looked at Derek. "Do you have any food?"

"Does it look like I'm catering?"

Stiles opened his mouth before closing it. Derek gave him a look that told him that was smart.

Lydia got up. "I need some coffee." She looked at the books and the papers in front of her. "There's nothing useful in these prints. If there are three hunters left, how do we know they'll still be there?" Hiding a yawn behind her manicured hand, she tossed off her heels and walked bare-foot crossing the room. "You do have coffee, even if you're not catering, right?" she tossed over her shoulder before disappearing into the kitchen.

With a fed-up sigh, Derek looked out the windows.

"We'll get them, Derek." Stiles bit the inside of his cheek, knowing the wolf didn't want to talk about it.

"We will." The statement was clear, Derek would do it on his own if the pack failed. But they wouldn't- Stiles wouldn't let them fail. And he knew the rest of them shared that sentiment.

"Would you just- Why do you always do that?"

"Do what?"

"Shut us out." Stiles knew nothing good would come out of this, but he needed to make sure that Derek knew he wasn't alone in this. "'Cause you know we're here. For you, I mean. We'll get them. Just- don't shut us out."

Derek clenched his jaw and turned away, going towards the kitchen.

Stiles nodded. "Okay then." He looked at the tense shoulders and the way Derek was holding himself- Something was off. Well, it wasn't like it was a new thing. But Derek had become better, more relaxed in his way of being, kind of. After the therapy (that Scott and Cora had talked him into. Also Stiles, but mostly Scott and Cora) he'd gotten a few years ago, Derek had become more relaxed, like he'd gotten the help he needed to move on. But now, the tense posture was back. He kept himself away from the rest, like he couldn't handle anyone touching him. And Stiles totally got that. Derek had been through hell down in those tunnels. At least that was what the wounds he'd been sporting had insinuated.

"Hey, Derek?"

"What."

"I mean it. No more shutting us out." He swallowed his nerves and rolled on the soles of his feet. "Alright?"

Derek stopped walking and turned his head to the side. Not quite looking at him, but Stiles knew he was listening.

The wolf nodded before joining Lydia.

Minutes later, Stiles had vacated to the couch along with his laptop.

Derek kicked his shoe and held out a plate.

Stiles looked up at the looming man. "What?"

"You were hungry, weren't you?" Derek lifted a brow in question.

"Ah, dude. Really? Perfect. Thank you, I'll- "

"Don't mention it."

"We need to have a plan."

"Of course we do." Lydia stated as she curled herself on the other side of the couch, with a hot cup of coffee in her hands. "They're probably waiting for us, so this needs to be good."

Stiles snorted. "It's always good."

Two identical raised brows of skepticism from both of his friends made him gape.

"Well, it always turns out-"

"Just eat your food, Stiles." Lydia said before sipping her coffee.

-0-0-0-0-

Stiles smacked his lips and groaned. He'd fallen asleep sometime while researching the tunnels, going into the towns' website and spending hours reading everything he could about the towns' history. And his sleeping-position had not been kind to his neck.

Sitting up, he massaged his neck and looked over at Lydia who had a book in her lap but were sleeping in something that looked like a better sleeping-position that Stiles had been in.

Casting a glance to the windows, Stiles knew it had to be in the middle of the night since it was still dark. Something had woken him up, but he didn't know what.

A low growl came from his right before cutting off, turning into more of a whimper. Derek was clearly dreaming. He was sitting in the loveseat, his head leaning against the back of it.

Stiles got up and debated whether to wake him up or not. Stiles had been more attuned to Derek and how he acted last night. Because that was a thing. The weirdness of how he acted. There was no trace of the (marginally) more relaxed person he'd become over the years. Stiles had tried asking him about the tunnels and the days he'd been there, something that Derek quickly had shut down.

Another whimper escaped the man and Stiles leaned closer, putting a hand on the other man's shoulder.

"Derek? Hey, wake up," he whispered. "You're dreaming." He shook the shoulder under his palm lightly. "Derek."

Beta-blue eyes looked back at him, clearly confused.

"You were dreaming. It was just a dream."

Derek blinked rapidly, still looking at Stiles.

"You okay, dude?"

A hand shot out and pulled Stiles closer and with a small yelp, Stiles lost his balance and ended up half on, half off Derek's lap. "Okay, wha-"

Derek was shaking. Trembling hands clutching Stiles' shirt, holding him close to him.

"Hey, hey, it's okay." Stiles slowly put his hands around the other man, feeling worry settle in his bones. "You're okay. Just breathe for me, alright? It was just a dream."

He had no idea how long they sat like that, with him draped across Derek's lap, hugging him. It was more like Derek had his head resting against Stiles' chest, like he was listening to his heartbeat.

Stiles more or less cradled the dude against his body, knowing how tactile werewolves were. The need of reassurance of pack and safety was probably what drove Derek to do this, waking up after a nightmare.

When he felt Derek's hands unclench on the back of his shirt, he eased back a little so he could look down on Derek.

Who looked to the side, refusing to meet his eyes.

"Hey." It was soft and made Derek lift his eyes up to Stiles'.

Stiles had no idea what to say for once, so he just gave what he hoped was a little smile, wanting to reassure him that it was nothing to be ashamed of.

He could see Derek swallow before leaning back.

"Do you want some water?" Stiles asked, speaking quietly so he wouldn't wake up Lydia.

"I can get it myself."

"I'm getting you something to drink," Stiles said, dismissing the words entirely.

Coming back from the kitchen, he handed Derek a glass of water and put his hands in his pockets. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, knowing the moment was over.

"No."

"Alright. Fair enough. Can I borrow a bed, then?" He looked at Lydia. "I can't curl up as comfortable as her. I've got a crick in my neck stating that."

Derek rolled his eyes and put the glass on the table, hands steady. "There's no sheets on the bed in the guest-room." He got up and seemed to steel himself.

Stiles frowned.

"You can share mine."

Even if his brows shot up in surprise, he didn't voice it. "You sure?"

"Don't ask, or I'll change my mind."

He hurried to follow Derek upstairs, after putting a blanket over Lydia's sleeping form.

When he stepped into Derek's bedroom, he could see the man was already under the covers.

Stiles discarded his jeans and shirt, keeping his t-shirt on before climbing under the sheets.

Relaxing against the pillow, he turned his head and looked over at Derek's back. They had one blanket each, so there was no sharing, but they were in the same bed and Stiles had no idea how to handle this.

Did he have to handle this, though? They just needed to get some sleep. He decided to pretend as if this wasn't completely weirding him out and closed his eyes.

Listening to Derek's slow and even breaths made him calm enough to actually dose off.

-0-0-0-0-

He must have done more than just dosed off, because from the relaxed state of his body he knew he'd gotten some sleep.

Opening one eye, he looked straight into dark hair.

Sometime during the hours of sleep they had migrated towards each other so Stiles had ended up spooning Derek, who had Stiles left arm around his torso, holding onto his arm.

Stiles decided to go for the 'Ross Geller- hug-and-roll'-routine, hoping the man wouldn't wake up and this would be another weird thing.

He could vaguely recall Derek having another nightmare and he'd calmed down just as Stiles had shuffled closer and put an arm around him, just as Derek had curled closer to Stiles.

Refusing to let this become weird (er), he tightened his hold on Derek before rolling onto his back.

Of course that didn't end up like he had hoped because of the tight hold Derek had on his arm, which again resulted in bringing Derek over to his back, laying almost on top of Stiles.

Derek turned his head and looked at Stiles with a mocking stare. "Did you just hug and roll?"

Stiles pursed his lips before blowing air through slim lips. "Hah, no!"

"You're an idiot," Derek snorted, before getting up like they hadn't just spent the night spooning.

"Am not. I just-"

Derek gave him the look. The look that said 'You know that I know that you're lying'. That look.

"Alright, fine." He sat up and pointed a finger at Derek. "You should feel special. I've never done that before. You're the first person, like, ever."

Derek shook his head (Stiles liked to think of it like a fond headshake) before pulling on sweatpants and socks. "I'm going for a run."

"Before breakfast? And planning?"

"Before breakfast and planning."

"Is Lydia still sleeping?"

Derek tilted his head, listening.

Stiles grinned.

"She's not here. I think she left a few hours ago."

"Really?"

"Heard her leave."

"Huh. Okay." Stiles checked his phone. "Hey, do you mind if I borrow your shower? We're supposed to meet here in one hour, and going home, showering, going back-"

"Sure," Derek said as he got down on the floor to do his push-ups. "Don't use all the hot water."

"No problemo." Stiles looked at the crazy man doing push-ups literally seconds after waking up. "Hey, do you have a shirt I could borrow? My jeans are fine, but-"

"Top drawer," Derek answered, not even pausing his work-out. "Socks in the drawer to the left."

Stiles nodded rapidly. "Great. Awesome. Thanks." He got out of bed and walked over to the dresser. A part of him couldn't believe that Derek let him sleep there, even less let him borrow clothes.

He'd never been in Derek's bedroom until yesterday.

He found the shirts and a clean pair of socks and looked around. Last night he'd been too tired to really take a look at the room.

It had two widows, smaller than the ones downstairs. Derek's bed was a double with nightstands on both sides and looked broader than Stiles' own bed. It was on the right side in the room, a dresser was opposite of the bed, on Stiles' left side. Nothing else.

Huh.

There was one thing though. A medium sized chest placed under the window to the right, next to the nightstand on the left side of the bed. Stiles only saw it when he stepped closer to the windows.

It was a little black around the edges and Stiles turned around to leave. He didn't need to get closer to understand where it came from.

Derek was doing sit-ups now and Stiles rolled his eyes. "Crazy people working out before breakfast."

Getting into the shower, he borrowed some soap and he quickly rinsed off before drying himself before putting on his jeans and Derek's shirt and socks.

The shirt fit him. A little lose over the chest, but otherwise it fit perfectly. Another surprise.

He always felt as if Derek was a lot bigger than he was, but he guessed he'd filled out a little over the last couple of years.

A knock broke him out of his musings, and he threw the dirty clothes in the hamper, including his boxers. Grinning to himself, he opened the door and the grin slipped away.

"You done?"

"Yeah, I just-"

"Isaac's here with Allison and Scott." Derek pushed his way inside the bathroom and Stiles automatically gripped Derek's arm to steady himself.

Derek eyes the hand and Stiles quickly drew it back. "See you downstairs." He paused before looking back at Derek, who stood there waiting to close the door. "You're not going for a run?"

"Not when they're here already."

"Alright."

-0-0-0-0-

"Hey, man. What are you doing here?" Scott asked as Stiles came down the stairs.

"Aah, I fell asleep on the couch and when I woke up I didn't have time to go home." He pulled his flannel-shirt over the borrowed t-shirt. "So I borrowed the shower and now I'm going to see if Derek has some cereal that doesn't taste like cardboard."

Isaac snorted. "Good luck with that."

Stiles found a bowl and something that could resemble edible cereal if he just added a ton of sugar.

"Hey, Stiles."

He whirled around and gripped his chest, looking at Isaac. "Make some sound, dude. God."

Isaac gave him a shit-eating grin before leaning against the counter. "Hey, how is he?" His whole posture changed in seconds, from playful to nervous.

"Derek?" Stiles sniffed at the milk and deemed it good enough. "He's-" not doing so well? Need therapy, again? Have nightmares? Is complicated? "He's getting there." He looked at Isaac, wanting him to stop worrying too much. It wouldn't do Derek any favors. "Just be there for him, man. And we'll get the hunters."

"Damn right," Isaac said, bumping Stiles shoulder before he opened the refrigerator. He looked back at Stiles. "You smell like him."

"I borrowed one of his shirts after I showered."

Isaac lifted a brow. "U-hu."

Stiles looked down at the cereal in betrayal. "No sugar can help this. It tastes like a whole bunch of nothing added with a little bit of dust. Ugh."

Derek entered the kitchen and sniffed the cereal. "How much sugar did you put in here?"

"Apparently not enough," Stiles said as he rinsed the bowl and put it in the washing-machine.

Isaac squeezed Derek's shoulder as he passed him, leaving them alone.

"Erica and Boyd's here." Derek cracked some eggs into a bowl, adding salt and pepper.

"You do have food!" Stiles gasped with faked surprise.

"I'll share if you go away until I've made it."

"Really?" Stiles said, feeling something uncurl in his stomach for some reason.

"Really."

-0-0-0-0-


	5. Chapter 5

_Authors note: So this chapter is written with a sleep-deprived mind so I apologize for any misspellings. It's a bit longer then the other chapters so I hope it makes up for the long wait. Hope you like it though :) Thank you for follows, reviews and favoriting. You're awesome!_

Chapter 5

With Allison there, Derek tuned everyone out as the girl told them who the hunters were and that they hadn't followed the code for a while, leaving a trail of dead werewolves in their wake. Derek knew all of that, since he'd listened in on the hunters when they talked while they thought he was unconscious.

He looked over to Scott, only now noticing that they were all looking at him. "What?"

Scott lifted a brow. "I asked you if you think you can handle going back there with us tonight. We know the hunters have changed location, so it's just to find the scent Malia mentioned."

With a wave of unease running through him, he glared at his alpha. "I can handle it."

Scott seemed far from convinced but he nodded. "Alright. So, Lydia." He turned to the woman sitting by the table. "The blueprints-"

"Yes," she said, pointing a finger on the entrance of the tunnel. "This is the only way in." She looked at the rest. "Chris said that the hunters didn't want to meet with us, so I don't think they'll go back there."

"So why are we going?" Malia asked, looking like she was trying to solve a mathproblem.

Stiles threw a hand out. "Because you said there was another scent there and because the rest of those hunters should be stopped."

"But I could have been wrong about the scent. I don't even know what the scent was."

"You said it smelled wild," Isaac said. "Like another werewolf or something."

"I never said that."

"Either way," Scott interrupted them. "We're going." He stood up. "This is our territory and they will not get away from us and what they did to Derek."

Stiles nodded. "Okay."

Everyone got up after agreeing to meet up in one hour.

Stiles felt a hand grip his upper-arm and looked at the man whose hand was on Stiles. "What?"

Derek gave him that intense stare and Stiles took a deep breath. "What?" The word was softer this time and Derek straightened up and let go of his arm.

"We're not going to find anything."

Stiles blew air out through his nose. "Probably not." He looked at Derek. "But we need to be sure."

-0-0-0-0-

"How did you do that?" Stiles asked as he ran into the room deep inside the tunnels.

Derek had just kicked the otherwise locked door open, even if it was surrounded by mountainash. "Not important." He lifted his head like he was smelling something. "No one has been in here," he grit out.

Stiles frowned at how blank Derek's face had become. "No one?" he asked, stepping closer to the other man.

Derek seemed to shake himself out of his own thoughts. "Not in the last couple of days."

Stiles blinked as something occurred to him. "Except you."

Derek looked at him, giving nothing away. "Come on. We need to search the rest of the rooms."

Everyone had been given orders of where to look and when to meet back outside. Getting into the tunnels had been easy but nobody wanted to be there longer than necessary.

Derek face betrayed nothing of how he felt, but Stiles recognized the blank expression and stepped closer. "We can leave if you-"

"Don't."

"Derek, I-"

A howl was heard and they stared at each other before running towards the sound.

"What?" Stiles screeched to a halt in front of Scott and the rest.

"It's empty." Scott nodded towards Malia. "She haven't caught the scent. We couldn't either." The alpha looked at Derek, who seemed a little pale but had no other tells on how uncomfortable he was. "Let's get out of here. "

"We need to find them!" Derek grit out, balling his hand into fists.

"I know." Scott looked grim and Stiles knew the hunters should be scared. They would never give up until they found their new location.

Scott gestured for them to follow him out of there.

When they stopped by their cars, Scott turned to Derek after a nod from Allison, who'd just pocketed her phone. "Allison says Chris knows where they are."

-0-0-0-0-

"Here?" Isaac snorted. "Here? Where they couldn't be more prey even if they wanted to."

Derek raised a brow in agreement. "Too easy."

They were located at the cheapest motel in town, Chris had guaranteed their whereabouts.

"I know right," Erica looked at Stiles. "Sure we should go through with this? It smells like a trap."

"If it is a trap, let's go into it with open eyes." He grimaced. "You know what I mean."

"Sure, Batman."

The alpha looked at Derek. "I want you to wait outside. I know you don't think it's a good idea, but you can't kill them. I mean it." He let his eyes bleed red. "It's for your protection as well, and you know I'm right."

Derek growled. "I will not back down from this. I was the one they tortured. I will be the one to take them down."

"The hell you will. We have an agreement with Chris." Scott looked at Boyd and Isaac. "Do not let him kill them."

They nodded while Derek looked close to loosing his temper.

Stiles stepped closer to Derek, letting his shoulder brush the other man's. "We'll go in last. You can't expect him to stay out of it."

Scott sighed. "Yeah. I know." He looked straight ahead. "Let's do this."

-0-0-0-0-

With measured steps, Stiles lowered himself so he could sneak passed the window to the room where the hunters were. Isaac followed behind him, along with Erica, Derek and Malia.

The rest had gone on the other side, while Allison and her father had perched themselves on the roof across the street.

When they heard shouting, Erica kicked open the door as she pushed Stiles back, away from the fight. Stiles kept back, gripping Derek's shirt to keep him from killing the hunters. He knew he couldn't have stopped the wolf had he decided to go in, but for some reason he waiting for a few moments before joining the fight with a roar. Stiles ran inside, but let the wolves do the fighting while he kept his bat up, ready to defend himself and his friends.

With a surprisingly quick fight, a little disappointing in Stiles opinion, they had gathered the hunters in the middle of the room. Scott dragged Derek away from the now unconscious hunter he'd fought. "Derek, Derek. Stop!"

Stiles rested his bat against a shoulder and one of the hunters looked at him with disdain. "What? You have no room to judge, dude."

The man kept glaring and Stiles glared back, even as Derek stepped into the room again, calmer this time. Stiles met his eyes with a question if he was alright.

The wolf looked away and kept his glare on the hunters.

This was one of those times where Stiles wished he could have been more than human, so he could have taken them down- no survivors. He knew what it cost Derek not to kill them.

Derek came up next to him. Stiles ripped his eyes from the hunter and to Derek. Something passed between them, like the older man knew Stiles thoughts and nodded.

It's okay. Keep your calm.

Well, he didn't want to keep his calm. These monsters had tortured Derek. Because of hate and ignorance. He would not let these people get away from it.

"You won't."

He'd said that out loud, apparently. Stiles blinked, gripping his bat even tighter.

Derek looked at him. "Chris will take care of them."

"Take care of them? How? Send them to camp? 'How to be a better hunter'-camp? I don't like it. We shouldn't be handing them over to Chris. I mean, they had you captured for days, Derek. I can't – I won't let them get away from this-"

Derek took a deep breath. "They won't."

-0-0-0-0-

"You should know better," one of the hunters said when Stiles walked over to Scott, who'd just entered the room again.

Stiles looked at the man who clearly was talking to him.

He raised a brow. "Oh, I know better. I'm not the one killing people."

"They're not people," the man sneered and in a second Stiles was up in his space, poking the man's injured shoulder with his bat.

"They are more human than you will ever be, mister. Don't think for a second that I don't know what they can do. But I also know that they are not the ones that has tortured, killed and persecuted people for who they are." He gave the man a cold stare. "I am not the one using hatred and my own shortcomings to go after innocent people."

"Innocent?" The man winced in pain as Stiles' bat pushed against the open wound. "They're monsters."

Stiles stepped back, knowing he couldn't change their mind. "The only monsters I see in this room are you."

He left the room before he could do something stupid, like beat them to a pulp with his bat. But it wouldn't be fair, and he wouldn't lower himself to their level.

Isaac met him in the parking-lot. "I think Malia has found something."

"What?"

"The scent. It's in their car." Isaac looked wide-eyed and a little on edge.

Stiles looked around until his eyes found Boyd, Allison and Malia by some trucks. "Heartbeat?"

"Don't know for sure." Isaac went into the room as Stiles jogged over to the hunters trucks. "What is it?"

Boyd looked at Malia, who frowned. "Don't know."

Scott came up next to them and sniffed. "I can't recognize it."

"Who's guarding the hunters?"

Derek kept silent, so Scott answered. "Chris took them with him. He had some friends with him, who didn't look too happy to see the hunters." He lifted a brow. "I don't think it will be a friendly reunion. We're meeting them tomorrow."

Stepping closer to the truck, Stiles tried the doors. Locked. Of course. "Does anyone know where the keys to this thing are?"

A jarred sound later, Malia opened the trunk of the car, which now had several dents in it. "What?" she said, looking at the others. "It's open now."

Looking down into the trunk, Stiles almost gagged at the smell.

"What is that?" Allison asked, holding a hand over her nose.

Derek looked up from the trunk. "Werecat."

"A what now?"

-0-0-0-0-

Deaton looked at the people crowding the room. "It's a werecat, like Derek said. Its ability to transform into a feline or an anthropomorphic creature has some of the similarities that a werewolf has. They are stronger than humans, faster and heal quicker. But unlike werewolves, they do not have the pull of the moon." He looked down to the table, where the unconscious werecat was laying. "He is still alive, but severely dehydrated and malnourished. I should get to work."

Scott stayed behind along with Isaac, who both would help Deaton.

Stiles slid down on one of the chair in the waiting-room. "Werecat? What the actual fuck, dude. I didn't know they existed."

Erica shook her head. "Me either."

Derek looked out the window, arms crossed over his chest. "I thought they were extinct." He turned to look at them. "At least, I was told they were. But that was-" He swallowed. "That was years ago. And I haven't exactly managed to get hold of new information."

"Werecats, dude." Stiles shook his head with a sad smile. "Hope he makes it though."

Just as he was about to nod off, Deaton came out from the back-room. "You should go home. Scott's a bit busy at the moment, but he wanted you to go home and get some rest. Isaac and Scott will stay with me, monitoring the werecat's recovery."

"But he will be alright?" The question came from Derek and Stiles looked at him.

They had been down in the tunnels at the same time, and Derek hadn't seen or smelled him. But either way, knowing they'd been there at the same time-

"Yes. I believe so." Deaton looked at them with calm eyes. "Get some rest."

-0-0-0-0-

The werecat, Eugene, regained consciousness two days later. He had one hell of a fight with Scott, who'd in the end won if only due to the fact that Eugene wasn't back to his normal and also; Scott had alpha eyes.

Stiles liked to know that alpha red eyes worked on werecats too. Eugene had asked for forgiveness pretty quick, but Scott had told him not to worry about it. Softy.

Eugene was painted by his days in captivity and reacted much in the same ways Derek had. No touching and living in constant fear. But opposite of Derek, sudden outbursts of tears and the need to flee.

They gave him space and understanding.

Derek refused to meet the man. It was not like the others really noticed, he had excuses. Good ones too. But Stiles didn't buy them.

Apparently Scott didn't either, so he felt relieved when Stiles said he was going over to Derek's to talk to him.

"You're the only one who can ask him, I think."

"What? Why?"

Scott eyed him with surprisingly serious eyes. "Because you're the only one he listens to."

"That's not true. You're his alpha."

"That's different and you know it." Scott clapped him on the shoulder. "I have to get back in. Eugene could-"

"Go." Stiles walked backwards towards his jeep. "Talk to you later, man."

-0-0-0-0-

When he knocked on the door, Derek opened and stepped aside so Stiles could enter.

"So, what have you been up to?" Stiles asked, as he sat down on the couch.

"What do you mean? I met you last night."

Stiles turned so he was looking straight at Derek, who stood by the couch. "Dude, sit down. We need to talk."

"I think I'll stand. Thanks." He lifted a mocking brow. "What's to talk about?"

"How you're avoiding meeting Eugene."

"I'm not."

"So are."

"Stiles."

"Derek."

Derek actually sat down on the couch, much to Stiles surprise. "So?" Stiles knew he shouldn't push the topic. But he had to.

The other man sighed. "So nothing. I just haven't had the time."

"Usually," Stiles started, eying Derek intently. "Usually, you're in the front when something new and unknown runs into town."

Derek looked at him from the corner of his eye. "Not always."

"And I think I used the word 'usually' so-" He sighed. "Just, what's bothering you about this?"

"Does it have to be something that bothers me, Stiles. Has it? Can't it just be that I've been busy?" Derek got up and turned his back on Stiles, who also got up but in a calmer movement.

"It can." He put a hand on Derek's shoulder. "But I don't think that's what this is."

"God dammit, Stiles." Derek turned to look at him as he shook of the hand. "Why do you always have to be here? Why do you always push and-" Derek closed his eyes, breathing heavy.

Stiles stepped back, grimacing. "I'll go. I don't always have to be here." He turned to leave, before deciding to just fuck it all. "I care, that's why I always push. Because you were gone for days, Derek. We searched everywhere for you and you were gone. And I couldn't- I don't think you're too busy to meet Eugene, because I know that you schedule isn't that full. And we've always had each other's backs for years. I care. So answer me." He met Derek's eyes, reading the anger and despair. "Please."

"You're annoying."

Stiles snorted. "I know."

Derek took a deep breath and nodded. "He was there at the same time I was. I didn't see him. Didn't smell him." He paused. "I should have. But I was too drugged or too beaten to notice that there were other people in the same situation as me." He lifted his eyes to meet Stiles. "I can't meet him and tell him that I couldn't help."

"Derek, you've turned out to be a decent person, but sometimes you're just stupid." Stiles shook his head. "Of course you would feel guilty about that. It's not your fault, you were tortured! Chained! You couldn't have known."

"But I should have known he was there, Stiles. I should-" He cut off and turned around, walking away from Stiles before stopping.

"Derek?"

"If I see him-" Derek looked out the window, refusing to turn back to look at Stiles.

Stiles dragged a hand over his face. "It'll be more real. That's why, isn't it?" When Derek met Eugene, he couldn't escape the fact that he'd been tortured and held captive for days. Stiles didn't know exactly what had gone down in the tunnels, but from the broken sound of Eugene crying yesterday, he knew it had to be bad.

"Derek. You're still here, still alive and you got away. You are one of the strongest persons I know."

A humorless laugh escaped the man. "I'm far from it. I can't-" He crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm thinking about going back to see Patricia."

"The psychologist?"

"Yeah."

Stiles nodded in agreement. "I'm glad."

Derek turned to look at him. "Why?"

"Because you don't shut down anymore." He grimaced. "Well, you do. But you also care about getting better. And- I don't know what happened down there. In the tunnels, I mean. But I think it's good that you feel like you can talk to someone."

Derek looked down. "I wanted to kill those hunters when we caught them."

Stiles thought about sending Patricia some flowers as a thank you. This was far from the man Derek had been a few years back. "You and me both."

"But when I saw them, I just-"

Stiles took a few steps towards him. "It's better this way."

Derek glared at him. "It really isn't."

"But you didn't, and I think it's because you know it wouldn't have made a difference. They're scum, and I wouldn't mourn them. But it wouldn't have changed anything."

Derek didn't answer, but it looked like the air went out of him.

Stiles put his hands in his pockets. "Do you still want me to leave?"

The werewolf didn't say anything, he just sat down and turned on the television.

Stiles sat down next to him and leaned back on the couch. "Got any soda?"

"Fridge."

Stiles snorted as he got up and fetched something to drink.

Hours later, he woke up with yet another crick in his neck. But he felt warm and relaxed, so he sunk further down on the couch.

As he moved, Derek moved with him. Stiles looked down. Derek was sleeping, resting his head on Stiles chest. He looked peaceful and Stiles smiled to himself.

The dude deserved the sleep he could get. Stiles closed his eyes again and put an arm around Derek's shoulders and felt Derek pull him closer in return. Stiles figured it was worth the crick in his neck.

-0-0-0-0-


	6. Chapter 6a

Hi everyone!

I'm so, so sorry for not updating for so long. There are some things that are happening in my life right now, and even though I'm working on this story, real life just needs my attention. No worries, it's nothing bad but yeah, I have to deal with life first. But I promise: the next chapter will be up soon. Promise! Thank you for reading my story and for being patient with me. I love you for reading, for your comments, follows and favoriting- it means the world to me!


	7. Chapter 6

_Authors note: Welp.. me saying update soon.. Obviously that didn't work out for me. But here it is.. the next chapter. Thank you for your patience *hug*_

"Stiles, wake up."

Nope. He didn't want to wake up. He was warm and safe, the scent of Derek letting him know he could relax.

"Stiles."

He felt a low hum, as if someone tried not to laugh.

Stiles blinked a few times, gripping the body in his arms tighter. He looked down.

Amused eyes with a hint of glare looked up at him. They were laying on the couch, with Stiles arms draped around Derek's upper-body in what seemed to be an embrace.

"Oh. Dude, we fell asleep."

"Seems like it."

"You have used me as a pillow." Stiles knew the second he said it that he probably shouldn't have, but-

Derek sat up, giving Stiles a glare.

"No worries. We slept." Stiles said, sitting up and looking around for his phone. "Where's-" His phone landed in his lap and Derek stood up from the couch.

"Thanks, man." He got up as well and rubbed his neck. "Hey. I'm meeting the others at Scott's place tomorrow night. You should come."

Derek looked at him over his shoulder, lifting a brow.

"He'll probably be there, yeah." Stiles looked him in the eyes. "He'll probably leave soon. You should come."

Derek nodded.

Stiles left.

-0-0-0-0-

"They didn't drug me as hard as they did you," Eugene said, glancing at Derek with a bowed head. "Somehow they knew you were a born werewolf and since you are a Hale, they didn't take any chances."

Clenching his jaw, Derek shifted his stance so that his shoulder brushed Stiles'. Even if it wasn't a conscious movement, Stiles didn't move away.

"How long did they-"

"Keep me locked in? I have been with the hunters for 8 months."

Lydia straightened up. "Eight months?"

"Why?" Stiles folded his arms over his chest, unknowingly mirroring Derek.

Eugene lifted his chin and straightened the lapels of his jacket. "Because they used it to taunt me. They tried to break me by telling me how long I had been locked in, separated from my kin." His eyes flashed. "They didn't succeed." The werecat looked at the born werewolf, wary but also with his own pride in what he was. "The men who hunt our kind are not to be trusted or relied upon. They have no honor." He gave Derek a significant look, but Stiles couldn't decipher it. "We did what we could."

I don't blame you, was what Stiles read out of the heavy exchange between werecat and wolf. Weird, when he thought about it. In a natural environment, they wouldn't have been friendly. Or would they? Stiles had no idea, just the thought of it made his mind spin.

Derek seemed to struggle with the idea of letting go of his guilt of not doing anything to save the man. Stiles let his shoulder brush Derek's.

Derek let out a breath, as if he'd been holding it in. "We did. I'm sorry to hear you were with them for such a long time."

Eugene nodded once. "I'm free because of your pack. And I will always be in your debt for that."

"No need for that. I'm just glad we got you out of there." Scott paused. "The both of you."

Derek uncrossed his arms and held out his hand for Eugene. "If there is anything we can do-"

The other man shook his hand with a quick smile. "Thank you. I appreciate it." A second flew by. "We all- My pack- We knew of the Hale's that lived here. They were our allies, although we never met. But we heard of Talia Hale. She was fearless, but just. As said before; I'm in your debt, and if there's anything I can help you with, I will." He released Derek's hand. "Thank you, Alpha McCall." Eugene turned to Scott. "I will let others know what you did for me."

Scott nodded and turned to Isaac. "Drive him wherever he needs to go, give him the bag I've prepared for him."

"Oh, I couldn't possibly-"

"We have some cash, some clothes and a phone for you in it." Scott smiled, even if it was a serious one. "Call us if you need us. We'll be there."

Eugene nodded his thanks and Scott followed him out.

Stiles turned his attention to Derek, who had shut down completely. He was still. Too still.

"Derek?" He nudged the man with his arm.

"No."

-0-0-0-0-

Days went by with Scott pulling the pack up from whatever hole they had ended up in from the events that had lead them to the tunnels.

Everybody seemed to go back to normal. It wasn't their first rodeo, as Malia had said one night. And it was true. It wasn't even close to the things they had been through, but Stiles noticed how Derek kept more and more to himself, just like he used to before the therapy.

Stiles didn't think the others noticed. But he did. Something wasn't right. But he couldn't figure out what it was and why Derek reacted so badly. He didn't react at all, if Stiles was honest. But in some, almost insignificant ways, Derek had retreated into his shell once again. But why? They've been through worse. Maybe it was a breaking point for Derek? Like enough was enough? What did they do to him down in the tunnels?

Stiles knew he'd been starved and dehydrated. And tortured. Derek had begrudgingly told Scott about them questioning him about his pack, his mother, their new alpha (Scott). Taunting him, electrocuting him, beating him, poisoning him as they hung him up by ropes. But this? Stiles pulled his hair, leaning back in his chair in his room. Something wasn't adding up.

-0-0-0-0-

"He's gone."

Stiles turned to Isaac, who'd just swung into his room like a ninja.

"Holy sh- What is it with you people and not knocking?" Stiles gripped the front of his shirt, trying not to fall over in his chair.

"He's gone."

"Who, Isaac?"

"Derek. I went there last night and he's not there. I've searched the entire town. He left."

-0-0-0-0-

"What do you mean, Scott?" Stiles stared at his friend as they went to get some coffee later that morning.

"I mean that he left two days ago. He said he needed to clear his head." Scott looked at him from the corner of his eye as he found his his wallet to pay the clerk. "I told him to tell you."

"Well, he didn't."

"Sorry, Stilles."

"What? Why are you sorry? I mean, we're a bit surprised that's all. He can't just up and leave. Is he coming back?" Stiles frowned and found he didn't like the thought of Derek not coming back.

"Who're 'we'?"

"Me and Isaac. He didn't know either."

Scott blew a harsh breath. "Guess he didn't tell anyone except me."

"Obviously."

Scott put a hand on Stiles shoulder. "He'll come back. He needed some space after what happened. And he said something about-" He cut himself off and Stiles knew that there was something Scott wasn't telling them.

"Space from what?"

Scott opened his mouth to answer, but then the barista called his name and he went to grab his coffee.

-0-0-0-0-

 _Authors note: Sorry it's a short one. But I'm working on the next chapter and this chapter needed to end here (for some reason)_


	8. Chapter 7

Days became weeks and weeks turned into months and Stiles felt restless. Not surprising on its own, but this was another kind of restless.

After Stiles had found out Derek had gone awol, Stiles had taken to running. Him. Running. Insanity, that's what it was. Scott thought it was a positive thing, Malia didn't see the point of it but Isaac used to look at him sometimes when he came late for a pack-meeting, because he'd been out jogging. It was more running, to be honest. Full speed. Stiles needed it, to burn some energy and slow his mind down.

"Hey, you spaced out just now." Joni, an old friend from school, waved her hand in front of his face. Stiles had run into her in Beacon Hill's only coffee shop slash internet-café and Stiles had stopped to catch up on her life since high-school. He was supposed to meet Isaac before going to Scott's place.

"Oh, sorry. Tired, I guess." He dragged a hand over his face, excusing himself from the conversation just as Isaac met his eyes from outside the café and nodded at him.

Stiles went outside and they went over to his car.

Minutes later, Isaac sat in the passenger seat and Stiles finally got the car to start. He patted the staring-wheel lovingly. "Thank you for driving us," he said to the car as he drove them to Scott's.

Isaac shook his head. "Have you heard from Derek?" Isaac looked at Stiles with a skeptic frown.

"No."

It was the same question almost every day. Isaac tried to hide it, but he didn't handle Derek being away all that well. Neither did Stiles if he was honest and Isaac seemed to get that.

"I think I'm going back into the tunnels." Isaac shrugged. "Just to see if I can figure out what the hunters were after."

"You think they were after something?"

"What else? I mean, they asked him questions. About his pack, his mother. About Scott and us."

"So you think they were after something specific or just information?"

"I don't know. But.. I just want to know. Derek wouldn't talk to me about it."

Stiles parked outside Scott's house. "I'm going with you."

"No. You're not."

"I so am."

-0-0-0-0-

Isaac opened the iron door and Stiles followed him.

Cleaning his hands on his sweater, Stiles looked around. "It's dark."

"Hang on." Isaac could be heard further down the hall and the light came on as Stiles walked towards his voice.

"Nobody has been down here since we got Derek out." Isaac looked around.

After an hour or so, they were standing by the door where the hunters had had their 'breakroom'. Stiles looked up and down the hall, along the lines in the wall.

He tilted his head, getting a closer look to a crack that looked.. "Weird." He followed the weird line with his fingers. "I think.. Isaac, come here."

"What?" Looking over Stiles' shoulder, Isaac sniffed the air. "It's.."

Stiles felt the wall move as he put his weight into it. He looked at Isaac. "I think it's a door or something." He knocked on the wall, but it sounded the same as the rest of the wall. "I bet there's something about this wall. Or something behind it."

With their combined weight and some werewolf ninja-kicking to the wall, something popped anf the wall gave in. Or opened, was more like it.

Stiles held his breath. They had found something!

Isaac poked his head in, claws out and he sniffed the air. "Smells stale to me." He disappeared inside. "No one is here."

"You sure?"

"I don't-" Isaac stepped went over to the tables lining every wall in there. He stopped as Stiles entered as well, halting next to a table with microscopes on it.

"It looks like a lab of some sort." Stiles let his finger slide over the surface of a table. "Dusty. Yuck." It was months since Derek was kidnapped and if no one had been here..

"Someone's been here." Isaac sniffed the air again. "Recently. But not someone I recognize."

"You can't recognize their scent? But someone was here? Why?" Stiles looked around.

The werewolf pointed at an empty table. There were marks of something being removed in between scales, pipettes, timers and pH-meters. And there were clear marks from where something had been standing.

"Papers? Equipment?" Stiles looked around. Seeing a cabinet, he went over and opened it. "Empty."

"But it hasn't always been." Isaac inspected the marks on the table. "Someone has been here and removed something." He looked up from the table. "Computers or something. Maybe."

"But Derek said he never revealed anything."

"He could have. He was drugged."

"Derek wouldn't have said anything."

"I know." Isaac looked like a lost puppy and Stiles barked a laugh.

"I'm just.. Someone has been here. Maybe the hunters that had Derek and Eugene researched them."

"For what?" Isaac looked around. "Do you think it was because of who they are?"

Stiles stopped his movement and nodded slowly. "I have no idea." He clapped Isaac's chest a couple of times, lost in thought. "We need to talk to Scott."

Isaac swallowed. "Let's go over the rest of these tunnels first."

"But we've already done that." Stiles sighed as he looked at Isaac's hopeful face. "Okay then."

-0-0-0-0-

Two days later

"You did what? But we were going to tell Scott first." Stiles ran a hand through his hair.

"But nothing happened. We just saw someone." Isaac shrugged, like it was not a big deal.

Stiles stopped and turned to Isaac. "I know you and Boyd are stronger, faster and yada yada. But you're also werewolves. So my point is that you should have someone with you, that's not affected by wolvesbain or-"

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh." Stiles sighed. "But now we need to talk to Scott. And everyone else."

Thirty minutes later, they were gathered at Scott's house while Melissa was at work. Scott looked at them with eyes that told them they should've told him sooner.

"No. We didn't find anything." Stiles looked over at Isaac as he spoke to Scott. "Isaac couldn't smell anything other than dust. I couldn't see anything other than.. Someone has removed something from a room that looks a lot like a-"

"Like a laboratory of some sort. Yeah, you said as much." Lydia looked at the boys. "But the people who may or may not have been in there has left now." She leaned back in her chair. "So what do we do?"

Scott looked at his pack. "Boyd, when you went with Isaac last night. Did you recognize the persons there?"

The man shrugged. "No. But they smelled human. And no gunpowder."

Stiles gnawed on the inside of his cheek. That meant no hunters. "Maybe they were the one's working in the lab? That room?"

Scott nodded. "Maybe. But it's weird, though. Why did they come back now? After the equipment was gone?"

Malia sat up, like there was a light-bulb over her head. "Why didn't we find the lab-room the first time we went there?"

"There wasn't a door." Jackson shrugged. "We checked everything."

"Not good enough!" Stiles felt his heart beat faster than before. They might have found something if they had noticed the door sooner. Maybe Derek hadn't left, or..

"But Derek-"

"Is gone." Stiles glared at Jackson. "He doesn't get to decide what we do now. We need to find out why they had a room like that and what they were doing inside it."

"Let's go check it out," Malia got up but Scott stopped her with a hand on her arm.

"No one is doing anything yet." He looked at Boyd, Isaac and Erica. "Come with me tonight and we'll take a closer look. If there's no one in there, we go inside and see if we can find something we haven't already checked."

"But-"

Malia sat down. She knew the three of her pack-mates were the best with scent. She had better fighting-skills than a nose.

Lydia shot her a quick smile. "We'll be the back-up."

That made Malia smile.

-0-0-0-0-

Stiles sat, pretty uncomfortably he might add, hunched down behind some trees left for the exit of the tunnels. He'd been refused entering from Scott, even with his argument about being human. And that was exactly why Scott had said no as well.

"We've been sitting here for fifteen minutes," Malia whispered. "Can't we go inside now? There's no one here."

Allison shook her head and kept staring at the exit. Stiles sighed. He'd lost the argument with Scott and he didn't like them going in without him.

A couple of minutes later, and Erica, Isaac, Boyd and Scott came out from the tunnels.

"Why are we looking so angry?" Stiles asked as they got into the car. "What did you find?"

"Traces of blood." Scott said it in a rush, almost over a growl.

Oh, this was bad. But it was a lead. "Who's blood?"

"Derek's."

"Oh no."

"Yeah."

Stiles drove them to Scott's house, with the rest of the pack following in Allison's car. "Traces of blood. But that means they took samples of his blood and tried to- What? Find the werewolf gene? Compare it to Eugene's?" He was more or less talking to himself now, but his thoughts were all over the place. "Maybe they tried to see how much of their DNA was matching and why they were different from human blood. Or maybe-"

"Maybe. We don't know." Boyd said it softly, like he could hear just how freaked out Stiles felt. Maybe he could, it wouldn't surprise Stiles at all.

"But seriously; if they tried to see how their blood reacts to a series of tests as opposed to human blood. Or DNA. Or- Do you think they tried to separate the were-gene and-"

"That's not how blood-samples work, Stiles. They would need more than blood then."

Stiles turned towards Isaac as he drove. "What?"

"Look at the road, Stiles!" Scott helped him get the car straight again and Stiles sucked in a breath of air.

"Okay. Alright." He drove for a minute. "Wait, how do you know this, Isaac?"

"Lydia told me."

-0-0-0-0-

Lydia stood in front of them, drawing on a clip-board. "- and then they would have needed bone-marrow. Or more blood than you've found."

"But we can't be sure they didn't collect a lot of blood, but then removed it," Stiles exclaimed. "Even if Derek was only missing for a couple of days, they could have almost drained him." He looked at his friends. "He was pretty pale when we found him."

"That was from what he went through, not from blood loss," Lydia said. "Even werewolves needs time to produce bloodcells and-"

"If they had computers, maybe we can track them."

Everyone turned to Erica, who had been suspiciously quiet.

"We can do that?" Scott looked at Stiles.

"Maybe. It's worth a shot." He got his phone from the table. "I'll call Danny."

-0-0-0-0-

"There wasn't a lot of blood. Just enough to smell it on one of the microscopes," Isaac said later that night, lying on Stiles bed as Stiles sat in front of the computer, talking to Danny over Skype.

Danny, who normally never left Jackson's side, had gone to visit family a few days prior, after his mom had threatened with bodily harm if he couldn't come with them. He'd stayed close to the pack since graduating and his mom was suspicious and afraid he'd entered a cult or something.

Danny's face showed how much he wanted to be with them right now and Stiles gave him a small smile. "You'll be back in a couple of days."

"I know. But it feels wrong not to be there, you know?"

Stiles thought of Derek. Shouldn't he also feel wrong for not being with his pack? With them? Him?

He looked at Danny. "Yeah, I know. But see what you can find, okay? I'll tell you if I find something as well."

He ended the call and looked over his shoulder at Isaac. "You okay?"

"Yeah." He kept looking at the ceiling and Stiles waited him out. "I tried calling Derek again today. No one answered."

"Okay?"

"It was turned off."

Stiles waited some more.

Isaac sat up and sighed. Deeply. "What if something has happened to Derek? And we-"

"No. Nothing has happened. I don't think so." He got over to the bed and looked down at Isaac, who met his eyes. "Something in the pack-bond would've told you. Right?"

The blond boy nodded, looking back to the ceiling. "Yeah."

Stiles got back on his chair and opened a new tab. "We'll concentrate on finding out what they were doing down in those tunnels. Then, maybe, the douchebag -Derek will come back when he's done with whatever he needed to do."

-0-0-0-0-

 _Authors note: I try to make up for being gone for so long, so I hope you like the new chapters :) And by the way, this is un-beta'ed so I'm sorry if there's any misspells or something._

 _And thank you, again, for reading!_


	9. Chapter 8

Scott opened the door to Stiles' room. Quietly he surveyed the room.

Stiles was nowhere to be seen, but he'd clearly been busy. Red strings and pictures were up on the board in the room, with question marks almost covering the whole page.

Scott stepped closer. Derek's name came up a few times as well. And Eugene's. He heard a gasp from behind him and turned around with a grin.

"Dude, you scared the crap out of me." Stiles eyed him as he got his heart back under control. "Why I still get surprised by werewolves in my room, I'll never know. But-" He threw a shirt over his head and pulled it on. "-at least I know my heart still pumps the way it should. So, what's up?"

"Only red strings, huh?" He nodded at the board. "Your dad let me in." He smiled because the room looked like the Sheriff's office, with paper everywhere and red thread, a board, empty coffee-cups and everything.

"Yeah, okay." Stiles looked around his room. "I haven't found anything useful yet."

"This looks like when we were searching for the-"

"Yeah, I know. But this keeps it organized."

Scott frowned. "This is organized?"

"Well, yeah." Stiles gestured towards the board and the desk. "This is totally organized. Clue 1: the hunters, werewolf and werecat. Clue 2: the lab. Clue 3: traces of blood found in the lab. From Derek and maybe Eugene as well. And clue number 4: There was computers. Like when- So, okay that is a longshot and we've got no way to trace them, but we've found out.. or at least narrowed down which kind of computer it could have been. Because, believe it or not, it wasn't a laptop. And-"

A phone-call interrupted Stiles and Scott answered it. "Hello?" He frowned, surprise lacing his voice. "Eugene?"

-0-0-0-0-

"There's more hunters? Just in another town?" Isaac groaned.

"Yeah. Derek is with Eugene apparently, has been since he left. They've been tracking the hunters."

Allison raised her brows. "Derek's been-" She looked at Scott. "All this time? Did you know?"

Scott shook his head, actually looking a little ashamed.

Erica and Lydia's eyes turned to Stiles, but he refused to react.

"And why aren't we going there?" Jackson asked when they were all gathered in Derek's loft.

Erica and Boyd had spent some time there while Derek was away, so it was clean and okay to use. And Derek was coming back, apparently.

Scott looked at his pack. "Because Eugene and his pack, along with Derek have searched the entire building. So we don't need to. And they are coming here."

"The whole pack of werecats?" Allison asked, looking like the werecat-thing still sounded unfamiliar.

"No. Just Eugene, Derek and another person that they found in the building."

They knew this person had been captured and held there for some time by hunters, probably in the same group who had taken Eugene and Derek. Just in another city.

Stiles looked at Scott with squinty eyes. He was hiding something. "Scott."

The alpha with the uneven jaw pressed his lips together, in a very un-like Scott expression.

Erica took her que from Stiles and leaned forward in her chair. "Spit it out, Scott. I don't like surprises." She sounded irritated enough to make Scott grimace.

"They're coming with this person-"

"Out with it, Scott." Even Lydia sounded on edge now.

"-who they know is a werewolf. But they think he's bitten. Newly bitten."

Stiles stomped over to Scott and looked him in the eye. "Come on, man. I don't have time for your bullshit right now."

Scott looked at him. "He's ten. His name is Charlie. The parents were killed by the werewolf that bit him."

Stiles went over to the couch and slumped down. "Shit."

"A kid?" Allison looked stricken and Isaac frowned.

"They tortured a kid? For what? For scientific reasons?" Lydia's voice was growing as she spoke. "And they are bringing him here? He should be in therapy!"

"That's the thing." Scott said. "We'll take him to Deaton. He's been checked by the werecat's pack counselor, but he didn't let anyone near him. Except Derek."

"Because he's a werewolf," Stiles said quietly.

Scott nodded. "And there's another thing." He paused. "I think these hunters took him because.. somehow they knew he was recently turned. And Derek think they took him to study him and.." He looked at his packed as it pained him to say it. "And try to change him back to human. They tried to rip his wolf away."

Erica stared into the air. "Well, shit."

-0-0-0-0-

Stiles went up onto the second floor some time later.

Derek would be home again. But not by choice. But because this kid needed help from someone he'd trust. Like Derek. And Deaton.

It hurt actually. Knowing Derek would come back. Knowing he didn't come back because of his pack or because he wanted to. But because he _had_ to.

That hurt.

Stiles opened the door to Derek's bedroom and went over to look out through the window, but not really seeing anything.

He knew he shouldn't be in there without Derek's approval. But he didn't care.

It hurt, because Derek came back without wanting to. Without needing his pack or understanding that the pack needed all of their members and not just when said members deemed it okay.

Stiles scowled. Years of therapy was wasted on this dude, because he withdrew into that douchebag he'd been when Stiles and Scott had first met him years ago out in the woods. In some way Stiles understood why Derek felt the need to leave.

No, he really didn't. Because Stiles had pleaded with him not to shut Stiles out when he was there for him.

And the thing that frustrated Stiles the most was that Derek had been doing so well, and then these hunters and scientists or whatever had come and dragged him down into nothingness again. Through torture and pain and-

Stiles pulled at his hair, thinking about shaving it all off again. He wasn't ready. Not to see Derek again or to let himself think about what it all meant.

"Shit."

He sat down on the bed and knew from the stale air that no one had been in there since Derek had left. And that Derek would probably know that Stiles had been inside his room.

"Shit."

-0-0-0-0-

"Why do I have to go?"

Stiles stood outside his house talking- no, arguing- with Scott.

Scott looked at him like he wanted to hit him. "Because you're.."

"Because I'm human? Then I definitely shouldn't be there. The kid could probably, like, gnaw my head off even if he's half my age. And you know, if you need a human you've got Allison or Danny- Yeah, Danny should go. He's super friendly and he got the dimples and everything. Everyone likes Danny."

"He's not getting home until tomorrow, Stiles."

"Oh. But what about Allison?"

"Hunter."

"But she's pack." Stiles blew a harsh breath out of his mouth, seeing Scott's determined face. "But Lydia can-"

"You are going, Stiles. Along with Derek, you're my second."

"Wha- I am?" He frowned. "I knew that. Kind of." He grinned.

Scott smiled the smile only he could make. "Yeah."

"But I don't want to go."

"But you will come, because I'm letting a werecat and a new werewolf into our territory."

-0-0-0-0-

"Are you going to meet Derek and this Eugene-guy?" Noah Stilinski asked Stiles as he grabbed a toast from his father's plate.

"I am."

"Don't stay up too late," his dad called after him with a chuckle.

Stiles shook his head as he walked over to his car. He, among several of his friends, still lived at home with their parents while they saved up to manage to get their own place. Not everyone together, but they had thought about living close to one another. Jackson, of course, had his own place along with Lydia and Allison had her own apartment. But the rest of the still lived with their parents. Well, Derek lived alone but Isaac was there more than he was with his foster-parents to be honest.

With it being summer-vacation some of them had some time off and Stiles couldn't have been happier with not having to call in sick-days from work. It made it easier not having to fake a cough or lie to his boss. Not that it would matter all that much for Stiles, being a writer. But he had dead-lines he had to make. For Jackson it was worse, being a real estate agent who couldn't afford to take a vacation right now, but he managed it by working when he needed to. He had people to clear the houses for sale and everything.

The rest of them worked as a barista (Malia), a private trainer (Boyd), a painter (Erica- believe it or not), a policeofficer (Allison) and a veterinarian (Scott). Danny studied to be a lawyer and Derek worked on his social abilities and- no, he was studying architecture actually while Lydia was doing a thesis in physics while being magnificent.

Anyway, they had jobs and school but still managed to stay in Beacon Hills. But when things like this happened, they all had jobs they could use so that they kept in touch with the community and had an outline over their territory and an eye on everything. It was neat. And came in handy some times.

And now he was supposed to meet this kid. This ten year old kid who had just become a werewolf and had been kidnapped, kept and traumatized by hunters.

Stiles got into his car and clenched his teeth together. Sometimes he hated knowing that monsters usually ended up being human, at least in his experience.

-0-0-0-0-

Erica opened the door to the loft when Stiles got there. "They're in the kitchen. Kid was hungry."

Stiles sat his bag by the door and swallowed. "What are you doing here?"

"They came earlier than expected. Don't worry, I'm leaving."

He really didn't want to see Derek.

Erica stepped closer, scratching his chin with her nails. It should have felt threatening, but the touch was soft and worried eyes assessed him.

"Thanks." He smiled.

"No worries, Batman. Call me when it's safe to come home." She left him there as if the reassuring exchange never had taken place.

He turned and straightened his back. He was a grown-up. He could do this.

He stopped when he saw Derek. Next to him was a kid that reached him to the chest. He looked smaller than ten years, but also older. It was eerie.

His eyes swept from the kid and met Derek's eyes. He looked the same. But tired. Exhausted.

Stiles didn't want to see that. He also saw determination and stubbornness in Derek's eyes. Stiles just- Couldn't. Couldn't deal with Derek and whatever this was. Not now.

Five minutes later, he knew he could not do this. Derek was back to being as warm as a brick wall while the kid was clinging to him like a second skin.

Weird combination when he thought about it, but Stiles was doing his best not to give any indication on how he was feeling. Not that easy in a room full of werewolves, but hey- What can you do?

He sat down on the chair next to the kitchen island. They had spent four minutes in dead silence after Scott had introduced this kid, Charlie, to Stiles.

"Have you guys eaten?" The question was out of his mouth before it registered in his brain.

Derek looked up from the floor he'd been inspecting so, so, closely. He looked to Eugene before answering. "We just got here."

Stiles looked to Scott, who gave him a helpless nod.

"Okay. Do you guys eat spaghetti?" He hopped down from the chair and Eugene stepped away so he could open the fridge. "I've got spaghetti and some meat. I make a mean Bolognese, though. That alright with you?"

He didn't wait for an answer and overlooked Derek looking like he wanted to say something.

"Go sit down in the living room or take a shower or something. I'll let you know when the food is ready."

Slowly, the werewolf left the kitchen, the kid glued to Derek while peaking at Stiles seconds at a time. Like he couldn't figure him out.

Stiles couldn't either, so he focused on what he was doing. Making spaghetti.

"Can I help in any way?"

Stiles turned around to see Eugene standing there, looking amused.

Stiles turned back to the stove a watched as the water was starting to boil. "You can set the table."

"Here in the kitchen or the big one by the windows?"

"Here in the kitchen."

"Alright then."

Eugene found the plates and Stiles could feel his eyes on his back as he made the Bolognese.

"You're not what I thought you'd be," Eugene ended up saying.

Stiles looked over his shoulder before pouring the water of the spaghetti. "Oh. And what did you think I was?"

"More spastic. Unfocused." Eugene hummed. "But you're focused, bold and.. dare I say you are the anchor in this pack."

"And you came to that conclusion because?" Stiles turned but Eugene was gone. He could hear him talking to Scott and Derek in the living room. Weird.

Minutes later, maybe two of them was spent just breathing, he called them to let them know dinner was ready.

His instincts telling him to go grocery-shopping yesterday had been a good one.

Because the kid ate like he'd never seen food before in his life.

Then he promptly passed out on the couch, still glued to Derek.

Stiles lifted a brow and looked at Scott. "That went better than expected."

-0-0-0-0-

 _Authors note: Thank you for sticking with me, even if I've been gone for a while._

 _And thank you for reading:) If you want, please let me know what you think of the story._

 _We're closer to the end then the start and I'm on a roll, guys. Huzzah!_


	10. Chapter 10

The next day brought Eugene and..

"Is that coffee? For me?" Stiles grabbed it and let Eugene inside as he went into the kitchen. Stiles' dad was at work and Stiles had just woken up.

"Why are you here?" He sipped his coffee while Eugene grinned at him. It was a polite smile, but a big smile nonetheless.

Eugene gestured to the chair and when Stiles nodded, the werecat sat down. "I'm here because.. Charlie is asking for you. Or about you." He sipped his coffee. "And Derek is tightlipped and it's making Charlie irritated."

"And? Derek can talk if he wants to. I'm not his keeper."

"I know. But he needs a break. And I think you could be the one to make Charlie let Derek out of sight for more than two minutes. I think Charlie sees you as interesting, normal. Everything we are not."

"Thanks for calling me normal. But.. Where's Scott?"

"He's still at the loft. Letting Charlie getting to know what a pack means. He's the alpha, but Derek is his second. So are you. But you are human. And Charlie needs to learn this and how a normal, healthy pack works."

Stiles let out a small laugh. It sounded as hollow as it felt. "Healthy? U-hu." He looked at Eugene, who eyed him in a get-your-shit-together-way.

"Alright. Just let me put on some clothes first."

-0-0-0-0-

Two days, some Reeces, a whole lot of talking on Stiles' part and a bunch of Marvel movies later, Charlie trusted Stiles enough to let Derek go for and run and shower afterwards without having a panic-attack and shifting as a result of said panic.

Eugene seemed to spend his time watching them, keeping his distance. Charlie trusted him, but only up until a certain point, even if he had helped rescue him from the hunters.

He was a werecat and Deaton had explained, over the phone, that newly turned wolves didn't trust other species easily. Especially if they were kids. It was the opposite of human kids actually.

Stiles had no idea why he would work since he was human but he didn't voice his thoughts. Other pack-members had been at the loft, but none of them could stay long, seeing as Charlie shrunk back and hid until they left. Unless it was Erica. She had been there when he came, even when she wasn't supposed to and that seemed to give her a star in Charlie's book. He also liked Jackson. The weirdo. He took a liking to Isaac as well, but Isaac always left as quickly as he came. Stiles knew it reminded Isaac of his past, living with his father.

He really warmed up after Eugene had decided to go back to his pack, or group. He knew there was nothing else he could help with when it came to Charlie. But he had offered his help when the time came to move forward against the hunters and/or scientists.

So with Eugene being gone, Stiles found out that Charlie liked Thor, was fascinated by the Hulk and loved Batman. He liked chocolate and pop-tarts and always laughed if Stiles managed to be his normal, spastic self. Typical.

But Stiles did not talk to Derek. Not unless he had to.

"Charlie will notice. Soon."

"Shut up, Scott."

-0-0-0-0-

Derek came into the kitchen right after Stiles had arrived that morning. "I think he's ready to see Deaton."

Still pouring his coffee, Stiles sighed. "Are you sure?"

When Stiles turned around, Derek was gone.

"Alright then." He sipped his coffee and put out a bowl and some cheerios for Charlie.

Derek had worked with Scott to teach Charlie control and actually had taught him breathing exercises. Stiles, and probably Derek, had tried to talk with Charlie about Deaton and how he could help him.

Stiles called Deaton.

-0-0-0-0-

"Stiles. How nice of you to come with." Deaton opened the door so they could come into the back of the clinic.

Charlie was whimpering, clinging to Derek while Derek was glaring at anything and everything.

"Oh, yeah. This is great. Cozy." Stiles looked around the room. "Everything is so.. sterile and.. clean. Really warm."

"Stiles. Shut up."

He glared at Derek. "You and your tense.." he waved around, "everything isn't helping either."

Deaton looked at Derek. "Sit down, please." He smiled at Charlie, who hid his face in Derek's jacket. "And relax," he added.

Stiles sat down, pulled Charlie down with him- still aware of possible pointy teeth, and sat them down in the two of the three chairs there. Derek sat down after a minute, stiffly. Like it agonized him to be there.

Stiles rolled his eyes.

Charlie actually giggled, looking between the two.

"Progress," Stiles mumbled and looked at Derek. "Not by the help of you."

Derek glared.

"You're funny," Charlie said. Even clinging to Derek he managed to look like he Stiles was the most hilarious person in the world.

"Thanks. And why am I funny?"

"Because you get Derek's heart-beat to go in weird beats."

"Oh."

 _Oh._ Huh, good to know.

Charlie grinned. "All the time."

Derek glared. At Charlie this time.

Charlie lowered his eyes and let go of Derek's jacket.

Stiles grit his teeth. "Derek. Pull it together, dude. He's ten!"

Derek closed his eyes for a second and swallowed. "Sorry, kid."

Deaton cleared his throat and leaned against the counter. "Shall we get started then?"

-0-0-0-0-

"Jesus H. Christ, it's good to be home." Stiles flung himself on his bed hours after Deaton's weird, but somewhat helpful talk with Charlie. Well, with Derek's jacket, hiding Charlie.

After the appointment with Deaton, they had taken Charlie to buy ice-cream in the MacDonald's drive-through before driving Stiles home.

And now he had plans with a shower, some gaming, maybe a movie and then: sweet, sweet sleep. He felt exhausted.

After a shower and an hour of gaming, he woke up to the sound of someone climbing through his bedroom window.

"I just want to sleep, Isaac. Alright? I'll talk to you in the morning."

"I- I'll come back later."

Stiles lifted his head. "You're not Isaac."

"No."

He sat up and turned towards the werewolf in his bedroom-window. "Derek?"

"Go back to sleep. I shouldn't have come."

"No. I'm wide awake now. So get in here, Sourwolf. What is it? Is Charlie okay?"

"Sleeping."

"Then who's with him? You didn't just leave him, did you?" Stiles sat up and turned on the lamp on his nightstand.

Derek blinked and went to stand fully inside his bedroom. "Erica is there. He's a heavy sleeper."

"But you shouldn't-" Stiles shook his head. "What do you want?"

"The hunters are still.." He stopped, eying Stiles' board. "What's this?"

"Before you got home, we went into the tunnels. We found a room with microscopes and stuff that led us to believe they studied you or something. Maybe tried mixing your blood with Eugene's. Or tried to find the were-gene." He gestured as he pulled on some sweatpants. "We had a lot of ideas."

"You had a lot of ideas."

"Um, yeah. Well, Scott had some ideas. Danny and Lydia helped. Malia, not so much- Anyway, we never actually found any answers. Danny and Lydia is still working on it, but I've been busy with Charlie and stuff so Isaac has been helping them."

"What is this about computers?" Derek asked, tilting his head while looking at the board, his eyes following a red thread. "Why red?"

"Unsolved." Stiles swallowed. "But we'll figure it out."

"The computers and the lab." Derek turned to Stiles. "They wanted to separate Charlie from his wolf."

"I know. But I haven't had the time to-"

"No, but we have a book."

"What? And you're saying this now? NOW?"

"Eugene has it. I've never seen it." Derek looked at him, almost.. soft?

"What?" Stiles looked at Derek, noticing how close they were standing all of a sudden. "I- uh.."

"I'll ask Eugene to show it to you. We managed to take it with us when we found Charlie." Derek stepped back. "Before we killed them."

"Okay. Well.. I'll come over in the morning."

"Derek?"

They both looked over to the windowsill.

"Charlie?" Stiles helped the kid inside. "What are you doing here?"

Big, brown eyes looked up at him, before looking at Derek. "You weren't there when I woke up."

"Where's Erica?"

"I followed your scent." Charlie looked at Derek. "I did good, right? I found you."

Stiles looked over to Derek, who seemed a little surprised and unable to react.

Stiles smiled at Charlie. "You did good, Charlie. But Erica might be worried."

"Oh. I'm sorry." He looked over to Derek, tears threatening to fall. "But you were gone."

"Sorry, kiddo." Derek pulled him into a hug and Stiles kind of, sort of, melted.

A small hand shot out and pulled Stiles into the hug as well. "I'm sorry," Charlie whispered into Derek's side.

"Don't be." Stiles said, looking at Derek. "You did good."

Derek kept his eyes caught in his, and Stiles didn't dare blink.

-0-0-0-0-


	11. Chapter 11

The tunnels chapter 10

 _Authors note: Yay, I'm back. Hope you enjoy this and guess what: I've got more chapters coming. Hoping to post frequently until it's finished now. Finally, huh? But thanks for sticking with me. I do not own Teen wolf, I only like to tell stories about them. Carry on, enjoy!_

Stiles followed Isaac as they ran through the forest. It was Stiles preferred route and he always ran alone. But for some reason Isaac had showed up just as Stiles stepped outside that morning with his sneakers on that morning.

They've been running for almost an hour when they stopped for some water and Stiles poured some water in his hand before running his fingers through his hair.

"What's on your mind?"

Isaac looked at him, swallowing his water. "Nothing."

"Come on." Stiles gestured. "Isaac."

"Charlie, um.. He doesn't trust me."

Stiles snorted. "He doesn't trust any of us. But he likes you." He grinned. "And what's not to like. You're adorable." He slung his arm around Isaac's shoulder and the werewolf growled.

"Stiles."

"He's been through a lot, alright? He doesn't trust easily. But when he sees how Derek interacts with you-"

"He doesn't."

"What?"

"Derek doesn't speak to anyone. Except short phone calls to Eugene. He talks to Charlie, Deaton and you. And Scott, and that's only because Scott is his alpha."

"But-"

"And what about the hunters? Even if Derek and Eugene killed most of them, some of them got away. And what if they try to kidnap someone else? What do they do with the blood and the scientific stuff?" He struggled with the words, like it had been on his mind for a while. Probably had.

Stiles had thought about it. A lot. "I know. Danny's working on it. So are Lydia and I." He looked at Isaac as they started to walk back down the trail. "I'll get Scott to call for a meeting. We'll tell you what we've found."

Isaac nodded before taking off.

Stiles gawked. "Dude, human here! Wait for the human."

-0-0-0-0-

"So." Scott looked at his pack and Charlie.

Charlie wasn't technically pack, but he had nowhere else to be and they didn't trust him with humans because of how frail his control could be if pressed. So he stayed beside Derek, who kept to himself, away from the rest.

"Stiles and Lydia has some information about the hunters that got away.." Scott trailed off, glancing at Charlie.

Lydia looked at Scott. "There are three hunters. Conveniently enough they're also scientists or at least has a degree in chemistry. Or two."

Nobody said anything, so she kept talking. "They are nowhere to be found of course. Eugene's pack found one of them, so-" She looked at her friends. "We only need to worry about two now."

Stiles nodded once, pursing his lips. He could understand why the pack of werecats would avenge Eugene and what he had been through. Malia looked at Stiles and shrugged, like a murder could be accepted in situations like these.

Lydia clicked her heels to get the attention back to her. "But Danny has managed to track down the two others relatives, families, friends, old class-mates.." She looked at Danny, who nodded.

Stiles leaned his arms on his thighs as he spoke. "We found the information from a whole series of guesswork, the names of the hunters who took Derek. And the rental on the building where they kept um.. the kid. And.. It mostly consists of uncertain facts, but it's what we have."

"And furthermore," Lydia said as she got up from the couch, "Chris says he haven't heard anything from the hunter-side. His friends are just as against what's been going on that we are." She looked at them. "Or so he says. But I believe him."

"Okay. But what do we do about.. You know, all that has happened?" Erica asked.

"We move on." Scott said.

"After the hunters has been found and dealt with. And whatever they found has been destroyed." Derek stepped up next to Scott. "They have to be stopped."

"We will stop them, Derek." Scott nodded. "I promise."

Derek looked at Stiles as he spoke to Scott. "Good."

Stiles wanted to talk to Lydia about the book that Eugene had, Derek had told Eugene to bring it to them. "Hey, Lyds. I think we have a lead. It's a book that Derek and Eugene found when they rescued Charlie."

Lydia looked from Stiles to Derek, who came over to them. "Eugene's bringing it here." He crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"When?" Lydia asked, her eyes gliding between the two men, intrigued.

"He'll be here in two days."

-0-0-0-0-

With a bat and a flashlight, Stiles sneaked into the tunnels, once again.

Their meeting with Chris had been interesting, and that was putting it mildly. Stiles had been surprised over how intent Chris had been on finding the hunters who had kidnapped a ten year old child. Even if he was a werewolf. Chris' words, not Stiles'.

Allison had managed to find something in Chris' listing over hunters who had fallen of their radar years ago. Two of them had degrees and specializing in genetic variation and mutation. Something that had gotten the attention of the pack. One of the hunters were dead, Derek had killed him a year back or so.

But one had survived, and Eugene was certain that this hunter had been one of the persons who had gotten away when they had freed Charlie. So now.. Well, Stiles was down in the tunnels alone. Because something was different and he couldn't wait until the next day. To his defense, he had tried calling both Scott and Isaac. But no one had answered so he went alone.

Since the pack-meeting last week, Charlie had seemed to relax a bit more around Stiles and Scott. It was barely there, but he didn't keep looking to Derek for advice when any of them spoke. Since the night Derek, and then Charlie, had come to Stiles' room, Derek had relaxed a bit as well. Barely. But enough to make the pack notice, wondering why. Stiles wondered as well, nothing had happened and they hadn't talked about anything.

Stiles shook himself out of his thoughts and focused on keeping the flash-light steady. It was dark down there and he hadn't turned on the light- lesser chance of getting caught.

In the next second, he was rammed into the wall, an arm pinned so tight over his throat that he had trouble breathing.

"Stiles?"

He gasped, as the attacker stepped back. Coughing, he looked at the person. "Derek? What are you doing here?"

The man in question looked around. "Looking," he admitted.

"For?" Stiles picked up the flash-light and turned it on again, letting the light swipe down the corridor.

He didn't get an answer, so he looked at Derek again. "What are you looking for?"

Derek clenched his jaw. "I don't know. I have to find something, so we can- I don't know."

Stiles frowned. This was nothing like the Derek he'd known for years and also not the Derek he had been since he came back with Charlie.

Stiles stepped closer to Derek, intent on catching his eyes. "How are you holding up?"

Derek huffed, but didn't step away. "I'm fine, Stiles. Just- We need to move on." He looked at Stiles. "You should go home."

"What? I was here first."

"That is not the point, Stiles."

"Dude, I'm here. I'm with you, and I've got a flash-light." He held it up and waved it around.

Derek stopped his movements by gripping Stiles arm. "Don't." He frowned. "Just follow me, alright."

-0-0-0-0-

"We didn't find anything. Again." Stiles sat down onto the grass outside the tunnels. They had been meticulously going through the rooms in the tunnels, one by one. Derek had barely managed to go into the room where he had been locked up, but with Stiles hand on his shoulder, he had managed. The room hadn't led them to anything either, but Stiles thought it was good for Derek to be there, just to overcome the fear. But he shouldn't keep going back there. Derek needed to move on.

They had just had another conversation/argument about Dereks behavior, and Stiles had decided to change the topic. "But if there's nothing here to find, then the book you and Eugene found might help us."

Derek put his hands in his pockets, looking down at Stiles. "Maybe." He looked around. "We should go."

Stiles sighed and got up, brushing off his back as he checked his phone. "Danny might have found something." He looked at Derek, who was staring at him. "Derek?"

"Thank you." He swallowed.

Stiles frowned. "What for? You never say thank you. Well, almost never. Why now?"

"Because-" He looked as he did when he had to admit that Stiles was right, but Stiles didn't smile. "Because I needed to do this. And- You were right. I don't sleep much and since we found Charlie I've just- It's a lot to handle and I needed to come here to see that there's nothing here anymore." He actually pulled Stiles closer by the lapels of his shirt, and rested his forehead against Stiles.

Stiles rested his hands on Derek's sides. "I know. I'm here."

"I know that now."

-0-0-0-0-

Stiles thoughts were buzzing. Not only by Danny's new information about the hunters and their whereabouts, but about how weird- that was the only word- Derek had been that night. He was slightly worried about Derek's state of mind, but at the same time this behavior was a mix between Derek when he was in treatment and Derek when he was soft. As in mood. Calm and- relieved? Stiles had no idea. But what he did know was that he would never ever ask Derek about it. Or anyone else for that matter. He just knew that the guy needed the help he could get. He deserved some happiness.

"Have you called you therapist yet?" he asked as he walked into Derek's loft the next morning. Charlie were nowhere in sight and the others hadn't come yet.

"Who? Patricia?" Derek went back into the kitchen, where omelets were frying in the pan. He turned of the stove put the omelet on a plate. "No. Not yet."

Stiles sat down on the closest chair and stole a piece of bacon from Dereks plate. The man glared at Stiles as he also sat down. "Find a plate, you can have some."

"Really?" Stiles grinned, but yelped when Derek smacked his fingers as he tried to steal another slice of bacon from Dereks plate. "Ow. But thanks."

"Where's Charlie?" he asked when he'd found what he needed to eat.

"Sleeping." Derek tilted his head, as if listening in on something. "Yeah, still sleeping."

Stiles grinned. "That's adorable. I don't have a more fitting word than that. Adorable. Yeah." He took a bite of his food and made a happy sound.

"What's adorable?" Derek grimaced, like it hurt him to pronounce the word.

"The way you tilt you head to listen in on Charlie's heartbeat. Or movement. Or, yeah, what is it that you do actually, when you do that?"

Derek shook his head. "Listen."

Stiles nodded and ate the rest of his omelet. And the rest of Derek's bacon. It was a good morning.

-0-0-0-0-

Stiles wasn't angry at Derek to have left, only to come back because of Charlie. Not really. Well, kind of. But he could also see that Derek had some issues. About a ton of them. But Derek seemed calmer, maybe the trip to the tunnels helped him in some way? Stiles had no idea.

But when Derek sat down next to Stiles during the meeting later that day, everyone noticed because Derek usually stood by the windows. Charlie had noticed as well, and seemed confused in the beginning. But Jackson had dragged him down beside him and Charlie had, miraculously, stayed put. Only after he had checked in with Derek of course.

Lydia came over to where Stiles was standing after the meeting was over, whispering into his ear before leaving.

"What did she want?" Danny asked Stiles.

He shrugged. "She said ''progress', but- Well, I guess it's about the case and the little dude."

Danny nodded before going back to his laptop-screen. "What are we going to do when we find these hunters? I mean, Scott says we're going there to meet them. And say what? Do what?" He looked over to where Derek and Isaac where sitting, having their own conversation.

"I don't know." Stiles shook his head. He knew there was a possibility that these hunters would be killed as well. As far as he knew, he didn't have a problem with it. They had tortured Derek. And what they had tried to do with Charlie was unimaginable. He didn't approve to murder normally, no one did, but this was his pack. It was people he cared about. So he just shook his head. "I guess we'll find out tomorrow."

"I'm not coming. Going back to work and I've postponed it longer than I should."

"I know." Stiles looked over to Derek, meeting his eyes. "It'll be okay."

-0-0-0-0-


	12. Chapter 12

The Tunnels 11

Charlie knew things. He was 10 years old and he had been the smartest one in his class in school.

And he had eyes. He could see that Malia was really pretty, but said a lot of weird things. He knew that Jackson could be cruel, but he had never been cruel to Charlie. Lydia was scary, but smelled good and Danny had really impressed him with the games on his laptop. Isaac was nervous and Charlie got nervous because of him, so he kept a bit of distance between them. The only time Isaac wasn't nervous was when he was around Scott. And Allison. Allison was strange, smelled different- but good. And none of them were cruel to him.

A lot of men had been cruel to him. They had tried to take away his roar. But they hadn't managed to do so, because of Derek. He trusted Derek.

He frowned. He trusted Scott, Derek's alpha, too. But not as much as Derek. Derek was safe and quiet. A bit grumpy, but he was kind to Charlie. He came with him every time he had to talk with Deaton. A man that knew everything and had kind eyes. Searching eyes, but he helped him with his nightmares. Derek also made him eggs and bacon every morning, and he taught him to use his senses. One time Derek had brought him to the river, where they had played and Charlie had laughed for the first time since his parents-

Well, he liked it here. It was alright. A bit boring, like now. When the others were busy with laptops and warplans. That's what he called it. He knew they were going after the men that had held him captive. He didn't know what they would do to them, but he didn't care. He was afraid of them and what they might do if they got Derek again. But he wasn't afraid being with this pack, he felt safe- mostly. Sometimes this fear would come creeping into his stomach and he would get really upset, but Derek was always there to calm him down and make him feel better again.

He knew they had been there when Derek had been kidnapped. He had been in some kind of tunnel, he'd heard Isaac and Allison talk about it one day when they thought he was watching television. He also knew that Isaac's heart made a weird jump whenever Allison laughed. Or smiled. Or touched his arm. He was probably in love, Charlie thought, making a grimace.

Isaac wasn't the only one with a weird heartbeat. Stiles had it, but his heart was beating fast anyway. But sometimes, around Derek, his heart would do a stop before it really beat hard. But that wasn't the weirdest; Derek's heart always did that when Stiles came around. Especially when he looked at Derek in some sort of way that Charlie had no idea what meant. Maybe Derek was in love with Stiles? Was that possible? He was always grumpy to Stiles. Well, sometimes he went all soft in his voice when he spoke to him, but no one else had noticed. At least, Charlie didn't think so. He knew that boys could love boys, because his mom had said that it was just as natural as when boys was in love with girls. But he couldn't really see Derek being Stiles' boyfriend. He was a werewolf and could easily kill Stiles if he wasn't careful. Derek had said so himself. If you're not careful, even when playing, you could hurt humans because you are much stronger than they are. And you have to be careful with your claws. That's what Derek had said hundreds of times.

Charlie looked over to Derek, only to see him looking at Stiles, who sat next to Danny at the table. There was that look again.

Charlie rolled his eyes and turned back to his book. He should ask Derek about that some time.

-0-0-0-0-

 _Authors note: What did you think about Charlie's thought of the pack? :)_


	13. Chapter 13

The tunnels 12

"According to this book that Eugene dropped off last night, I think we can say that they documented their actions pretty detailed." Lydia looked disgusted at the book lying on the table in front of them. "It's- I have read it, Stiles read it." She looked at the group around the table. "And no one else is going to read it. But we're writing it down into the book we have so that we can have it for later. But I don't want you to read it if you don't have to, because it's.. awful."

Stiles nodded. He had read everything and it made him throw up. Twice. "Yeah, we know they are guilty of kidnapping, torture and- They shouldn't get away with it."

"But we can't go to the police, because that would get more questions about what you guys are and not who you are." Lydia looked at Scott. "So what do we do?"

"We're leaving in a couple of hours to see if we can find the hunters at the addresses Danny found for us."

"And?"

"We should talk to them, see if they have anyone else locked up somewhere. And if they haven't, we should-"

"Kill them." Malia looked at Scott. "We should kill them. They don't deserve to live after what they did."

"Have you read-"

"No, but I don't have to. I saw Eugene when we found him, and how he dealt with.. everything. I see Derek." She looked at the man, who refused to meet her eyes. "I know how it feels to be trapped. But I don't know what they've been through. I don't need to. I see the consequences it has for them. And I have met Charlie. He lost his parents. Do I need to keep talking or do you understand why I am saying that they should be killed?"

"For once, Malia, I agree with your wild reasoning." Jackson looked up from staring at the book. "I'm in."

"But we can't just-"

"Scott, listen. I don't think they are redeemable. Do you?" Allison asked. "I mean, what they did- It's.."

Scott looked a little lost but nodded in the end. "Alright, we have to find out if they are holding anyone else captive. And we need to find out if they did this of their own free will or if they were threatened or something. I mean, we can't just go there and kill them. That makes us no better than them."

"But it does. We don't kill or torture innocent people. For science or for fun." Lydia looked at Stiles, who blinked back tears. Because they had both read what had been done to Charlie, Eugene and Derek. And they weren't the only one who had been tortured or experimented on. There had been others before them. Others that hadn't survived.

"Where's Derek?" Isaac asked, notiving the absence of the born werewolf.

Stiles got up. "I'll go check on him."

He had noticed Derek's reaction and how he quietly had gone up the stairs as Malia talked. Stiles went up the stairs and down the corridor and knocked on the door. "Derek?"

"I'll be right there."

The door was still closed and Stiles knocked again. "I'm opening the door now. Okay?"

He didn't get an answer so he did what he said. He stepped into the room and saw Derek standing by the window looking out. "Hey." He crossed the room and stopped behind him. "Don't lock me out. What's going on, man?"

He could see Derek's shoulders move from uneven breathing, his rigid stance telling Stiles that he had heard enough of their pack going back and forth about the hunters. He swayed a bit closer, letting his chest touch the Derek's back. "I'm here, okay?"

Derek leaned back, just a touch, letting himself rest against Stiles, who in return rested his chin on Derek's shoulder. Stiles breathed slowly, in and out, until Derek's breathing matched his own.

When Stiles stepped away, Derek turned and caught Stiles arm.

"Wha-"

"You're really here." Derek kept his hold on Stiles arm.

Stiles frowned as he noticed the look in Derek's eyes. "I am."

"When they-" Derek cleared his throat before starting over. "When I was in the tunnels, they kept talking about my pack. About Scott, who they knew was the alpha. They knew they didn't have that much time and that the pack is too big to go after. But they also talked about Lydia, about Allison. And about you." He swallowed, but had a blank look in his eyes. "And I was so drugged and when I heard your name I guess I reacted in some way. I never told them anything about you, but since that time, they kept talking about you."

Derek let go of Stiles' arm and slid his hand over to Stiles' chest, right above his heart.

Stiles looked down before focusing on what Derek was telling him. "And?"

"They talked about you, about what kind of role you have in the pack. They asked about my relationship with you and- I remember when I was at my weakest, they pretended that you came. That you had found me, and I remember being so relieved to see you. But you didn't smell right and the heartbeat sounded different."

Stiles felt goosebumps erupt over his skin as he tried to wrap his mind around what Derek was telling him. They hadn't stopped at torture and experiments. They had abused his feelings about the pack. And laughed about it.

Derek looked from Stiles chest and met his eyes. "And they would make fun of my relief and use that against me and- Then I knew it wasn't really you, that they had just pretended and I lost it. But I couldn't get away-"

"Jesus Christ, Derek. Oh my God. I'm- I'm so sorry," Stiles pulled him into a hug. "I'm so, so sorry we didn't get you out of there sooner. I-" He strengthened his hold around Derek's shoulders as Derek hugged him hard. "Derek, I am so sorry."

"It's not your fault," Derek mumbled into Stiles shoulder. "You found me, didn't you?"

"Always, Derek." He leaned back to look at Derek. "Thank you for telling me."

"Yeah." Derek stepped back and sat down on the bed, running a hand over his face. "I'm calling Patricia when all of this is over."

"Good," Stiles said softly as he sat down next to him. "Good." He looked at Derek. "We'll get them."

"I know."

-0-0-0-0-

"Everyone ready?" It was a couple of days later and they had managed to agree on their next step.

Their cars were tanked up and ready to go. Everyone was there.

"Who's looking after Charlie?" Stiles asked Derek as the pack got into the cars. Stiles rode with Derek along with Lydia, Malia and Isaac.

Derek started the car with a roar from the engine. "Deaton."

"Really? Charlie was fine with that?" He grinned. "It's like your first night out since getting a werebaby! That is so cute."

"He is not my wereba- Shut up, Stiles." Derek glared at him as he drove.

Isaac hummed, while Lydia smiled.

"If this is your date-night, Derek, why are we here?" She looked at the people beside her before smiling sweetly at Stiles and Derek.

Stiles turned around and faced the road. "How long until we're there?"

Derek hid a grin, but only Stiles noticed.

-0-0-0-0-

-0-0-0-0-


	14. Chapter 14

_Authors note: Finally! A new chapter. I'm sorry I am going in slow-motion. You have no idea how frustrated I am over myself about this story. But thank you for reading! I love you for that and here:_

"How can they not remember what they did?" Stiles almost roared as he paced between the parked cars outside a diner.

They had stopped, after returning from a visit to the scientists that they knew had been involved in the kidnapping of Derek and Eugene. And Charlie, and his parents-

"I don't believe them," Erica said as she leaned against the car, one leg crossed over the other by the ankles. "Their heartbeat didn't waver, but that doesn't mean they didn't lie."

Stiles pulled at his hair, pacing. "I mean, they-" He looked at Scott. "They seemed to be surprised when we showed up. And it wasn't until Isaac showed of his claws that they finally started talking to us." He frowned. "Well, stuttered out some kind of apology and babbling nonsense." He started pacing again. "They seemed terrified. It doesn't add up."

"No. It doesn't." Scott looked like he wanted to punch something. "I think they told us the truth."

"How?" Allison looked between Stiles, Scott and Lydia. "The book you got, clearly states that they were involved. They even did some of the-" She glanced at Derek, who stood with his back to them, watching the citylights- his back rigid. Allison sighed. "They were there when they held werewolves in captivity. But if they're not lying, why did they react like that?"

"Denial is a psychological defense mechanism in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead." Lydia pursed her lips. "Even insisting that it's not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence."

Stiles snorted. "Then they are also in denial about the denial." He paused. "Lydia, are you saying that they have some sort of PTSD?"

Scott looked like he wanted to punch something, Isaac kept glancing over to Derek with huge eyes. Stiles paused his pacing, letting Lydia and the rest continue their conversation.

Derek kept still. Too still.

Stiles went over to him, taking note of Derek's shallow breathing. "Let's go home, Derek."

The older man glanced at Stiles before looking back at the view of the city.

"Hey, guys. Let's get out of here. We'll meet up tomorrow to talk this through. I think we need a plan on what to do with this crap of a situation. But we need some sleep." Stiles looked at Scott, who nodded, having noticed Derek's silence as well.

"Tomorrow, at 10. Lydia has a few suggestions on how to do this." Scott blew air out through his nose. "We need to get this over with. But tomorrow."

Everyone got into the cars and the way back was spent in silence in the car. Stiles turned to Isaac in the backseat. "You should stay with Scott tonight."

It wasn't a question or a suggestion. And Isaac knew that. He nodded as he gave Stiles a tightlipped smile.

Erica looked between Isaac, Stiles and Derek, but didn't comment. Small mercies.

When they had dropped everyone off, Stiles leaned back in his seat. "Let's go."

"You're not coming with me." Derek's brows did a complicated twitch and that was the biggest thing he had done since they'd talked to the scientists.

"I am." Stiles looked at Derek. "Let's go."

-0-0-0-0-

"Charlie was sleeping when I called Deaton, I'm picking him up in the morning."

Stiles squinted at the emptiness that was inside Derek's fridge. "Are you sure Deaton didn't drug him? He's never calm enough to sleep anywhere but here." He shut the door to the fridge. "Didn't you just go shopping, dude?"

Derek grunted, but kept looking at his phone. Stiles tried taking Derek's phone. "Hey, Charlie is fine. Deaton's got a trust-understanding-guru-relationship with the kid. He'd never hurt him." Stiles continued in a softer voice. "And you know this. And the most important thing is that Charlie also knows this. And they are fine."

Derek didn't seem convinced, but let Stiles take the phone out of his hand. "I'm ordering pizza while you go take a shower. Then we'll eat. Then sleep. Okay?"

With a sigh, Derek went upstairs and minutes later Stiles could hear the shower running.

-0-0-0-0-

With their stomachs full of delicious pizza, Stiles melted into the couch and turned his head to look at Derek. It had been a quiet meal to say the least. "You okay?"

"I'm fine."

Stiles raised a brow. Derek huffed.

"I'll be fine."

Stiles nodded. "Better."

"They weren't lying."

Stiles pursed his lips, looking down on his hands. "I know."

"How? I mean, they were the ones who- They never actively did anything to me, they didn't partake in the.. torture," he almost spat out, "-at least I don't think so. But they studied the reactions or whatever. Studied my blood. Our blood." Derek took a deep breath. "I know those people were there."

Stiles covered Derek's white knuckled fists with his own hand. "I know."

Derek took a deep breath and unclenched his hands. "If they don't remember- " He held Stiles' hand between his own two. "They don't deserve to live for what they did to us. No one knows how long they have been doing this- There could be others who also.. I can't-"

"Derek. We'll come up with something. Lydia's theory about them having some sort of PTSD or whatever, that might be true. But if they did what you say they did, then it should have consequences."

"We have to stop them from doing it again." Derek looked at Stiles with determent eyes.

"I know." Stiles pulled Derek up from the couch. "But first, you need to sleep. It's been a long day."

"I'm a werewolf, I'll manage."

"Even big, bad wolves like you need some rest."

"I'm not just a wolf, Stiles."

"I know. Shut up, brush your teeth and go to bed. I'll be here if you need me."

Derek rolled his eyes but didn't let go of Stiles' hand as he moved towards the stairs.

Stiles followed.

-0-0-0-0-

Of course the big, bad wolf had nightmares. Especially after a night like this. Nothing other than talking had happened. And Stiles had thought it would be more blood, growling and maybe some maiming, but it had been surprisingly calm. Well, the scientists had been terrified, confused and somewhat irregular in their answers, but other than that it hadn't been a big thing.

But Stiles knew how werewolves were wired. Scent was their strongest of their senses and Stiles had noticed how distant Derek had become the second they had gone into the house. He didn't think that Derek had even noticed that Stiles had put a hand on his back when he started growling low. He had kept the hand there the whole time.

And now Derek was trapped in a nightmare, and Stiles put a hand on his shoulder to wake him up. "Hey, Derek. Wake up, you're safe."

Bright, blue eyes looked at him and Stiles withdrew his hand. "Hey. Derek. It was only a dream, you're safe."

Derek's whole body relaxed as he dropped his head down to the pillow. "Yeah. Sorry I woke you up."

"No biggie." He out his hand back on Derek's shoulder as he laid back down beside him. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

He could hear the other man swallow. "No." After a beat, he added: "Thanks."

A warm hand covered Stiles' on the man's shoulder.

Neither of them went to sleep for a long time, they just laid there in comfortable silence, knowing the other one was right there.

-0-0-0-0-


	15. Chapter 15

Stiles woke up warm and blinked a few times before lifting his head to look around the room. His arm was curled around Derek's waist and his knees were tucked into the crook of Derek's.

Spooning. They were now actively spooning. Huh.

Stiles rolled onto his back, feeling his joints pop as he stretched. It had to be late in the morning for the sun to be so high, and checking his phone- he was right.

"Derek?" He leaned over the other man. "Hey, wake up, we're supposed to meet the others in one hour."

With a grunt, Derek rolled over to his front and buried his head under the pillow, mumbling about stupid mornings. Stiles had to stifle a laugh, this was a side of the werewolf he didn't see often. The lazy, almost childish guy who could be playful and a bit shy. It was nice though, especially given the circumstances and yesterday's happenings.

"Hey, we have an hour to be there." Stiles got up and hopped into his jeans. "Derek, get your lazy ass up and go be the responsible adult you're supposed to be. We need to check in with Deaton and Charlie as well."

With a sigh, Derek sat up, swung his feet on the ground and looked out the window. "I just want this over with."

"I know. Me too." Stiles smelled his shirt with a wrinkled nose. "Dude, can I borrow the shower? Promise to be quick."

Derek turned his head to look at him, hair sticking up in weird angles. "Sure."

Stiles grinned at the sight and disappeared into the bathroom. When he came out, there was a clean shirt and a pair of socks on the bed for him. He pulled them on and refused to think about how he would smell to the pack when they met him. They could all suck it.

-0-0-0-0-

As they got to Scott's house, Derek had lost whatever mood he had been in that morning. He was back to talking only with his eyebrows.

"This is what they call regression," Stiles mumbled as they knocked on the front door. He glanced at Derek. "We'll figure it out."

Derek nodded, looking at the door.

Isaac opened to let them in. "Lydia is not here yet, but the others are." He looked at Derek. "We'll figure something out." He sounded so sure, but the worry for his former alpha showed.

"I know, Isaac." Derek squeezed his shoulder before pulling him in to a quick hug.

When Derek walked into the other room, Isaac turned to Stiles with huge eyes. "What did you do to him? Has he been talking to that psychologist-lady?"

"What? Patricia? No. I didn't do anything, what are you talking about?" Stiles protested.

"He hugged me, Stiles- like a real hug," he whispered. "That hasn't happened since before he got kidnapped and-" Isaac lowered his voice even more. "I didn't think he would do that, like in ever! But I- he hugged me. Now. In the middle of this-" Isaac gesticulated and it was more than Stiles could handle. "Whatever you did, keep doing it."

Isaac was part douche and part scared puppy with a dash of a nice guy. But this was more than Stiles could handle Isaac being at the moment. "Isaac, it's fine. He'll be fine. He's working through some shit and we're all here for him. But seriously, dude, you need to calm down." He laughed at Isaac's grimace, as if he recognized how weird this was, even for him. "You really need more hugs, dude."

"Stay away from me, Stilinski," Isaac garbled just as he got engulfed into an awesome Stilinski-hug.

He hugged back, so it was fine.

-0-0-0-0-

Everyone was yet again looking at Lydia, who had- yet again- brought her clip-board with her. "So if they were using the blood they collected to analyze the enzymes, it could mean that they were really there to do tests and detect what separates the were-gene from the human gene. Maybe they were comparing werewolf DNA and werecat DNA."

"But that doesn't explain why they electrocuted their test-subjects," Boyd said, shooting an apologetic look at Derek, who stared at Lydia.

Stiles shrugged. "It could be two different things. Some of them were there for the scientific side of it, while the others were there as hunters? Could that be right? I mean, we know the scientists has no records of going after werewolves or werecats or other supernatural beings that we know of. Their simply scientists that got a chance to research something they had never come across before." He looked at Derek. "Did they stay in the tunnels? You recognized their scent yesterday."

"They were there. Not in the rooms where they kept me, but they were in the vicinity."

"Alright. So- were the rooms sound-proof? Could the hunters have tricked the scientists into something where only parts of the truth was told to them? And when things progressed, they didn't really have a way out?" Stiles looked at Malia, who growled, clearly not liking the way he made them sound like they weren't guilty. "What I mean is; could they really have PTSD because of this? If not, how could they be telling the truth yesterday?"

"We killed the hunters who could have told us the truth." Scott said. "But we gathered that the scientists also were hunters. But what if we were wrong?"

Thousands of thoughts and lines of information buzzed in Stiles' head. He knew there was something wrong in this picture. "Give me an hour, I need to talk to Derek."

They looked at each other. "O-kay." Erica got up. "Let's go get something to eat and bring here, okay?" She looked at Stiles. "That enough time?"

"Yeah. Great." He nodded and they filed out quickly after that. But not Lydia.

She raised an eyebrow as he looked at her. "Does it look like I'm not here for the brain-storming? I'm the only one, maybe except from Derek, who can actually follow your mess of thoughts."

"Thanks for the compliment, Lyds." Stiles shook his head as he got up from the couch. "So. There is two scientists. I remembered Chris saying that two hunters fell of their radar a while ago. But then you killed one of them," he looked at Derek. "For good reasons, but anyway: That means there's one scientist that's still alive, that is also a hunter."

He looked at Lydia, who frowned. "That means that one of the scientists that we talked to last night was one of those hunters." She lifted a shoulder. "And? We knew that."

"Yes, I know." Stiles clicked the pen he was holding, repeatedly. "But the other scientist. He didn't know about the rules that applies when being a hunter. He seemed clueless when we brought that up yesterday." He looked at Derek. "Right?"

"Yeah, he did. But the other one.. Are you thinking that the scientist that also is a hunter is faking it?"

"Ding-ding-ding, we have a winner!" Stiles said with a smile, before going into thinking mode again. "It could be possible, right? I mean, when you have an education within stem cells and have several clinical trials that is also published in more than one medical-"

"Get to the point, Stiles," Derek grit out.

"As a hunter, you have to be careful of who you approach to partake in this… horror-story of a project. 'Cause it is a project for them. And when you have made the right connections to the right kind of scientists, you can lure them in by telling them about werewolves and how to cure cancer-"

"Stiles, the point, please," Lydia pointed out.

"Yeah, brain-storming is what we're doing, so keep up." He gave them a quick smile. "If the hunter slash scientist wants to torture and kill werewolves, what better way to do that then to get other scientists to join their team? Under the guise of science? To make a cure or how to use werewolves' genetics to breed super-humans."

"Super-humans? Really?" Derek looked broody. And angry. And Stiles knew it wasn't directed at him.

"You get what I'm trying to say, right?"

Derek closed his eyes for a moment. "You're saying that they needed funding. And for that they needed better scientists than they were themselves, so they disguised this as a project but didn't tell the others about how they got the blood-samples and information."

"Yes! Exactly. Or something like that. I don't know. I'm just thinking." Stiles plopped down on the couch again. "Lydia?"

"I think you're on to something, but we need to talk to them again. The book that Eugene brought had pretty detailed documentation about what they had done and the results from their actions. But maybe that book was just the hunters? I'm not sure. And why would they need funding to torture innocent people in the name of science?" She looked at them with determination in her eyes. "We need to pay them another visit."

-0-0-0-0-


End file.
